Plant me by our Tree

Chapter 4

Katsuki’s POV:

It took me a while to get up the courage to go to Hitoshi. It had only been a few weeks since I left the dreaded hospital and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back so soon. Then I thought about it, when I stayed at the hospital I would have wanted a friend. 

I gathered some board games and other things to do. Then I went to the store and picked up some snacks. I drove to the hospital, hopping in a way, something would stop me. I thought about how all the chemotherapy and radiation had made my hair fall out , luckily it has grown back out now.  I thought about the puking and the nausea that came from the treatments. I could almost feel my head start to pound and everything felt just different then normal. I parked my car and slowly walked to Hitoshi’s room. I remembered how his hands felt cold but his soft smile was warm. I couldn’t imagine his head without his unkept purple hair. His eyes would go grey and the whole world would stop moving. That wasn’t today though, that was in the future. Who knows he could get better. 

I came to his room and half knocked on the door before entering. “Hey Hitoshi” I said, somewhat nervous of his response.

“Katsuki,” he replied, with a smile. “You came. Sorry I lied to you about having a sister.”

I sat in the chair next to him after throwing my bag on the bed. “It’s fine, I get it. I lied to people too, at first. I eventually learned that it wasn’t something I could hide from.” 

    His smile faded, the sun went behind the clouds like it knew he was hiding something. After a few moments of awkward silence I finally spoke again. “So.. uh how bad is it?”

    He looked up from playing with his fingers and I could tell his answer wasn’t going to be anything good. “Stage three leukemia,” he said. “ they’re only giving me a year, a year and a half at the most to live.”

    “Dude that sucks.” I knew those weren’t the right words to say, but nothing else would come out of my mouth. 

    “Yeah it does and to think I’ll die at eighteen not having ever dated anyone,” he joked. How could he still make jokes even though he was sick?

    “Well I could fix that,” I replied, realizing how bad that sounded. “I mean I could set you up if you wanted.” 

    “Oh you could?” he smirked, “But you don’t know my type.”

“Then what is your type?” I asked. 

    “My type?” he jokingly asked. “ tall blonde boys with six packs that show when he sweats through his t-shirt. He blushes whenever I talk to him and I think I’d like it if they had just gotten out of treatments for hmmm… cancer.” 

    He had just described me, my cheeks switched from a shade of natural skin to a shade redder than a strawberry in under less than a minute. Sweat poured from my face and I cold feel the gay painc set in. I wanted to say what I was feeling at the moment but the words seem to get caught in my throat. 

    “So what’s your type?” he asked after minutes of silence. 

“Oh uh my type. M-my type” I stuttered and looked at the floor. “My type is purple haired insomniacs with purple eyes. Preferably one that will let me cuddle him on cold nights and lets me give him kisses on the top of his forehead”

    “Oh” he replied, tapping the side of the bed as he shifted to one side. It was late evening and the hospital was always cold. 

    I crawled up and layed next to him. A smile formed on his face. We turned on one of the movies I had brought. It was some sappy movie about a dog and his family. I would have preferred a horror movie but Hitoshi didn’t need any more frightening things in his life, cancer is scary enough. After a while of just laying  there he laid his head on my chest. I didn’t know what to do so I just let him stay there like that. Eventually he fell asleep. I was going to go home but I couldn’t bare the thought of moving him off my chest.  I decided to let him stay there sleeping. I eventually took off my sweat soaked shirt and fell asleep with him.