Flower Petals on the Wind

1

He first noticed he was sick when he saw his crush standing in the hall of the school, talking to one of the popular girls. The longer he stared, the tighter his chest felt, until he coughed harshly into his hand, feeling something soft land in his palm. When he looked down, he found a yellow flower petal sitting there innocently. It startled him, and he quickly stuffed it into his pants pocket.

He'd heard stories about a very rare disease which causes the afflicted to cough up flower petals. It was caused by a plant slowly growing in the lungs and eventually causing death. For the longest time, he thought the illness was simply a joke someone told that spread much faster than they expected. When he saw the flower petal, he thought differently. He needed to look the disease up again to find out what caused it and how to make it better.

He swiftly headed to class, not wanting anyone to see him coughing more flower petals.

Unbeknownst to him, his crush also noticed him. The brunette had been walking down the hall and saw the blond walking in the opposite direction. He wanted to go over and talk to the other, but before he had a chance he was approached by one of his classmates who wanted him to help with her homework. By the time she finally left him alone, the blond had already vanished from view. The next time he caught sight of the blond, it was after school let out and he was having a conversation with a girl who had been the blond's crush for the longest time. Seeing them together caused something in the brunette's chest to constrict, his throat to feel tight.

He hurried to get a drink of water in hopes of dislodging whatever was causing the issue, only to cough harshly and feel something settle on his tongue. Discreetly pulling it out of his mouth, his eyes widened when he saw it was a yellow flower petal. He couldn't believe that had just come out of him. He let the petal fall out of his hand and walked away, thinking deeply about what was happening to him.

"Shikamaru, wait up!" The brunette turned around to find the blond jogging to catch up with him. The brunette noticed quickly the blond appeared paler than he usually was. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but before he could, he felt something rising up his throat. He let out a violent cough, causing more flower petals to drift out of his mouth. He discreetly hid them in his pocket before the blond noticed them. "You okay there?" The brunette simply nodded.

"Hey, Naruto, what's up? Got any homework to do today?" Shikamaru asked when he was finally able to face the blond.

Naruto linked his fingers behind his head and looked at Shikamaru from the corner of his eye suspiciously.

"A little bit. But I can always do it later. Do you wanna do something today?"

Shikamaru stared at Naruto for a while before slowly nodding.

Naruto was talking about his day when the name of a strange and rare disease popped into Shikamaru's head. The symptoms fit what he was dealing with, but he didn't want to believe he could possibly have Hanahaki Disease. He promised himself he'd look it up at home later, after hanging out with the blond.

Naruto also remembered the name of the disease he thought was fake, suddenly remembering what caused it: unrequited love.

He looked at Shikamaru once more, feeling his heart race and his chest constrict, and it hit him like the bullet train: he was in love with Shikamaru. Even though he had only just recognized the feelings, his heart had noticed them long ago, causing the disease to spread as it had. Naruto decided that if he was going to be killed by his one-sided love for the brunette, he wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before the disease claimed his life.