♱⌣⌣ Wilting petals ︴Nagireo angst .𖥔˖
⋆˚࿔ TWS: Ooc (??) , angst, nagireo, hanahaki disease, unrequited love, hospital 𝜗𝜚˚⋆
Nagi Seishiro never cared much to put in effort, he never saw the point. Things came easily to him, football, video games, school, everything except Reo Mikage. From the moment he met Reo, something shifted in him. At first it was just admiration, maybe an infatuation at most. Reo had this relentless passion a fire in his heart which burned so passionately that Nagi found fascinating. It was different from anything he had ever known. Reo believed in him so earnestly that before Nagi even understood why he started wanting to be someone worth believing in, worth putting in effort for that's when at some point, it stopped being admiration or a silly infatuation. It started hurting physically and mentally. A dull ache in his chest whenever Reo turned to someone else when he praised another player even when he stopped looking at Nagi the way he used to. When they were separated Nagi felt it, this strange, suffocating loneliness but he swallowed it down and buried it under lazy smiles and half-hearted excuses. He didn't understand it at least not fully. Not until one day when he started coughing into his hand and saw the first purple petal. It was small, fragile, almost beautifully elegant. For a moment, Nagi just stared, uncomprehending. Then another cough wracked his body and slowly more petals slipped past his lips that's when realization struck like a thunderclap.
Hanahaki disease. He had read about it before. A sickness born from unrequited love. A cruel twisted joke of fate. He thought it would pass. He thought he could ignore it, the feeling like he was being suffocated, being drowned. He thought Reo would always be his but things changed. Reo changed.
Nagi watched, silent, as Reo’s world expanded beyond him. New teammates, new dreams, a new purpose that no longer revolved around dragging Nagi forward. At some point, Reo had stopped chasing him and Nagi, for all his talent, had no idea how to chase back. The petals kept coming. He learned to hide them, stuffing them into his pockets, flushing them down the drain, swallowing them back even when they made his throat burn. He kept playing and kept pretending, kept smiling like nothing was wrong. Until one day, his body betrayed him.
It happened after a match. The adrenaline was still buzzing in his veins, his chest rising and falling heavily, when the coughing fit took over. This time, it wasn’t just petals. This time, there was blood. He barely made it to the locker room before collapsing to his knees his hands trembling as he watched purple petals stained red spill from his mouth.
He was dying and Reo had no idea. Reo didn’t find out until it was too late. By the time he put the pieces together, Nagi was already slipping away. The moment he saw him in that hospital bed, pale, fragile, barely breathing, something inside him shattered. “Nagi,” he choked out, rushing to his side. “Why…why didn’t you tell me!?” Nagi’s lips curled into that same lazy smile but there was something wrong with it. It was weak. “Didn’t wanna bother you..” he murmured, voice hoarse. “You were…busy.” Reo’s hands clenched into fists. “You idiot. You absolute fucking idiot.” His voice cracked. “It was me wasn’t it? You” He couldn’t even say it. The words refused to leave his throat like it was stuck. Nagi just sighed. “S’fine Reo. Really.” His eyelids fluttered shut. “Not your fault.” But it was. It was. Reo had been blind. He had spent so long trying to reach his own dreams that he hadn’t noticed the person he had always wanted, his one and only treasure he could call his was right there quietly withering away for him. He wanted to scream. He wanted to turn back time. He wanted.. “Nagi, don’t you dare close your eyes,” Reo pleaded, grabbing his hand. “Stay awake. Stay with me. Nagi’s fingers twitched weakly against his. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something but instead all that came out was a single, bloodstained petal. And then, dead silence. The only sound was the heart monitor making a straight line sound (IDK WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE) Reo stayed by his side for hours, long after the doctors stopped trying to save him. Long after the last petal fell