Chapter Text
In the Ouran Host Club, the hosts were not surprised when having to deal with flower petals everywhere. There was of course, the extravagant bouquets of flowers imported from all over the world were the main contributing factor to this issue, but the one that stressed them out were petals covered in blood.
The major sign of Hanahaki disease.
It was a regular club day, just like any other, as Hikaru and Kaoru wandered around the room, attempting to find someone to tease. It was quiet, guests still populating many of the tables. But it was a hot day, so quite a few regular guests were missing, instead deciding to go to their much cooler homes. So there the twins were, wandering around to cause mischief.
“Hika-chan! Kao-chan! Do you wanna come sit and have some cake?” The voice of their Senpai drew their attention, and they saw the small, blonde host waving at them.
“Nah, I’m good Hani-Senpai.” Replied Hikaru, nudging his brother forward. “Maybe Kaoru would like to though?”
The aforementioned twin looked at his brother, minor horror showing on his face, while the older twin just gave him a wink. Hikaru knew about Kaorus' crush on their upperclassmen, something they had talked about after the trip to the beach, Hani’s muscle normally hidden beneath his uniform out on full display for once. It was even more solidified during that time that Hani’s brother kept trying to fight the boy. Such strength made Kaoru shiver, and he stumbled over his words attempting to give Hani-Senpai an answer. His stuttering made Hani choose for him.
“Please Kao-chan? Takashi isn’t here… I’m not used to taking care of guests by myself…”
“Aww, Honey-Senpai! Please Kaoru? We’d love to talk to you as well! Even if its just to make Honey-Senpai happy!”
“Yeah!”
‘C’mon, join us!” The guests sitting at the table said, nodding and calling him to them. Kaoru looked at his brother, who just nodded and pushed him towards the table.
He sheepishly smiled and took the seat next to Hani, the only empty space. It felt wrong, he felt like he was sitting in a space that wasn’t his. The guests continued to talk, and Kaoru sat quietly. He’d watched this table from afar many times, he knew the role he was supposed to fill. Mori’s role. A listener. Kaoru could listen, his brother was the louder of the twins anyways. As he listened, he became quite invested in the conversation.
“Yeah, I’m starting to worry I’ll be afflicted with that disease. I love him, but I don't think he likes me back. He thinks I’m obsessed with one of the hosts since I keep coming back so often. But that’s only because you and Mori are such good listeners!”
“Oh, that's so difficult!”
“Yeah, I guess I’m pretty lucky so far-”
After she said that, the guest erupted into a fit of coughing, a few unidentifiable petals making their way out of the girl's lungs and landing on the table. The five of them at the table looked in horror for a few seconds, silence enveloping the group on some awful blanket. The friends of the guest who coughed the petals lifted the girl by her arms, rushing her out of the room to confront the boy and hopefully get rid of the disease as soon as they could.
Tears pooled at the corner of Hani’s eyes.
Kaoru jumped into action, picking up the boy and Usa-Chan and laying them both in Hani’s club-bed. He whispered to Kyouya, who had seen the redhead carry the boy about the situation, and returned to the table to clean up the petals. Haruhi, who had been nearby with no guests, followed along, quickly setting up a sign saying “Honey-Senpai will be taking no more guests today”. The pair cleaned up the blood, and began to wash the dishes before they stained.
Kaoru and Haruhi had grown much closer in the recent weeks, sharing experiences allowing them to bond in such a way neither had with another person (Other than Hikaru) before.
“You sure cleaned that up fast.”
“Duh, you saw the same look on Hani-Senpai’s face as I did.”
“Yeah but… you-”
“I just… needed to do that for him, Haruhi.”
“Well, you didn't, you could have just gotten me to clean it up.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know.”
“Not after…”
“I know Kaoru.”
In the months before, they talked in secret. Those two were the only ones in the club who had been afflicted, and they would sit together and talk about those they had fallen for all the while expelling petals from their lungs in fits of coughs that caused blood to spill from their mouths. Kaoru with pretty pink rose petals, the thorns of the vine digging into the tissue inside his body, and Haruhi with a shining white, all with the droplets of blood that rolled off seemingly like it had never been tainted.
It was when Haruhi was on the brink of death, her crush starting much earlier than Kaorus, that she had the rose bush removed. One of Kyouya's most trusted doctors did it himself, cuts so precise it was like the rose was never there in the first place. Tamaki thought he loved the girl, but his weird father-daughter act was so true to the bone it almost killed her.
“...”
“...”
“Sorry.”
“I’m over it, you’re the one who shouldn’t have been cleaning up by yourself.”
“But…”
“Kaoru I had mine removed.”
“But that's so…”
“I can catch feelings for other people, you know? Just because Tamaki’s flower was removed doesn’t mean I’m completely incapable of love.”
“But I don’t want to.”
“...”
“...”
“I know Kaoru.”
“Yeah…”
“Have you told your brother yet?”
“He figured it out by himself, remember? I told you that.”
“That's not what I’m talking about.”
“Really? I’m sure it was…”
“Kaoru stop.”
Haruhi dropped the dishcloth she was holding. She watched the way her friend convulsed, trying to hide just how much pain he was in. she watched as he tried to suppress his own coughs, refusing to let the pink rose petals tumble from his mouth.
“The door’s closed, Kaoru. They won’t hear you.”
And with that, as if it was permission, he dropped to his knees and coughed like it would save his life. A morbidly beautiful bouquet of pink fell, the garden in his lungs no longer just roses. There were rose petals of course, making up the majority, but dahlia petals, chrysanthemums, peonies, carnations, azaleas, all of them cascading in a floral waterfall. Kaoru gasped and clutched his fingers into the ground, Knuckles whitening as more and more blood spattered on the floor. The petals became entire flowers, bright green leaves contrasting against the colour. It hurt. It hurt so much, but he couldn’t stop. They just kept coming.
Kaoru was dying.
He let it grow for so long, vines and stems covering every part of his lungs that not even the tiny molecules of air could get through.
And still he kept coughing. His tears tapped against the ever-growing pile of pink, his body ached for any sweet release.
He was dying and it was his fault.
He could have confessed, talked to Hani and explained the deep longing he had for the martial artist, expressed just how much he’d craved affection from the boy who loved all things cute, the boy could snap him in an instant. And Hani would deny him, explain that he was in fact straight and pining for the girl in the dark-arts club who was convinced the boy put a curse on her. Na Kaoru would cry. God, Kaoru would cry. Big, melancholic tears as petals continued to fall and his brother could have asked what had happened. Convinced him to talk to Kyouya, get the same scars on his chest as Haruhi did, finally be released from the grotesque fate the gods of love had bestowed upon his fragile body. And he would move on.
But no, now Kaoru was dying. His coughs filled the kitchen, loud enough there was no way the hosts outside couldn’t hear him. Loud enough he didn’t hear Haruhi’s gasp as she fiddled with the lock she flipped so the two could talk alone, loud enough he didn’t hear the rhythmic banging on the door as someone tried to break their way in. He didn’t hear when Haruhi finally got the door unlocked, allowing the other hosts to rush into the room.
Instead, he focused on how stupid he had been. He could have had the operation done at the same time as Haruhi, completely removing the romantic longing for his adorable,short, blond upperclassman. He was so scared to confess he instead let the flowers fester for so long there was no way he could ever allow himself to fall out of love. He didn’t even want to lose this love, this fluttering feeling he got whenever near the shorter boy.
And now he was dying.
At least, he thought he was.
Until he saw petals he definitely didn’t cough up, orange rose petals and the long, sleek petals of orange lilies.
Mitsukuni was awake when he saw the guest cough, petals falling from her mouth. He was awake when the girl was rushed out of the room, and awake when Kaoru carried him to his bed. If he wasn’t in shock, Mitsukuni would have blushed, but he was scared. He was worried the girl would eventually face the same fate as him, albeit probably of her own choosing.
Mitsukuni was awake when he felt the familiar tense in his red-head underclassmens chest, the same shudder he felt often. Even when someone tried to hide it, there were some things that would immediately tell someone you had the dreaded Hanahaki that could be found out if someone was close enough, and paid enough attention. Like the tensing chest, face slightly more red due to decreased oxygen, and a distinct smell of flowers.
The floral scents ment the worst. If there were enough flowers that one smelled like they were wearing perfume, there were too many flowers. Way too many flowers. He was going to tell Kyouya, ignoring the part of how he knew so much, but when Kaoru laid him down in the bed he almost immediately sunk into a deep sleep. He heard footsteps and dishes, and heard the kitchen door lock.
Takashi didn’t know about his condition, no one did. He was trained to be disciplined, to hide it and push it down. He was trained to tell the person he loved that he loved them, and if that person didn’t reciprocate he was just supposed to deal with the consequences. Die, with the consequences. And so he hid those bright orange petals, a reminder of the boy who stared at him with such admiration and dare he say it, love. Mitsukuni enjoyed watching the mischievous looks when the twins were planning a new prank, felt so cared for and noticed whenever Kaoru carefully and precisely measured and adjusted and fit whatever cosplay they were doing next. Kaoru knew what he looked good in, always trying to find a way for the boy's abs to peek through just the littlest bit. ‘Why be part of the host club with that kind of muscle and not show it off?’ Kaoru would always say to him. He did the same with Takashi, but never with as much admiration.
So he coughed. Just once, into his stuffed rabbit so no one could hear, and saw the petals. But he kept hearing coughing. An awful, mournful, painful cough, that went on and on, with the sound of someone collapsing to the floor, and it just kept going. Heaving breaths were being drawn in and out, a never ending cycle of pain.
The hosts and guests still left in the music room looked around in confusion and fear. That was, until their eyes landed on the closed door to the kitchen.
Mitsukuni ran, stumbling over blankets and chairs, his own coughs starting again with the sudden sprint he had run into. Orange petals left a trail behind him, as he ran to the door. Locked. And so he ran into it over and over and over again, he needed to help whoever it was dying in there. He had a feeling, recognizing the now overpowering smell of flowers.
Finally, when Haruhi opened the door with a pale face, Mitsukuni saw him. The boy he loved, surrounded by so many petals. Too many to count. It was like a bed of flowers. And Mitsukuni collapsed in front of the boy, adding his own petals to the steadily growing pile.