TSUKASA THE SKRUNKLE and the other characters ig

Rui's POV(hanahaki AU part 3)

(Atp I should prolly make a seperate book for it but y'all are entertaning in the comments so I'm conflicted

Also *inster generic, overused and cliche afterlife meeting ending*)
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Rui finds hismelf in a white, endless void. He stands there, clueless. There is a wind and a patch of green with a tree somewhere in front of him. There, stood a person. A familiar person. Rui takes a step forward to take a better look.

He runs.

As he is a few meters closer, he sees the individual's face. It's....!

"Tsukasa!" he calls. The person turns. He takes another step forward, but as he did, Tsukasa's eyes widen as he clutches his chest, red liquid dripping down his mouth as he coughed heavily, only having the tree next to him as support. Rui halted his tracks. Tsukasa looks at him. His expression was nothing like the knight Rui had grown to adore. His face was pained, pale and exhausted. Where was the happy and boisterous laughter he came to love?

He inched closer, but with every step he took, Tsukasa's coughing became more heavy. Flowers fell out of his mouth in the bulk, his uniform drenched in blood. Rui stared wide-eyed at the scene. Tsukasa looked at him, panting, before he started limping towards the prince. His mouth moved, as though he was saying something. But, no words came out. In their place, petals fell instead.

As he was within arm's reach of Rui, he collapses. Rui rushes forward, but as soon as he was mere milimeters from touching the knight, he disappeared in a flurry of black roses. Rui gasped, staring at his outstretched hand, reaching out to nothing. He breathed heavily before...

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Rui's eyes shot open as he turned to the side and choked. White lilies, covered in drops of blood, tumbled out. Several servants rushed into his room. "My lord?!" one fussed, wiping his mouth. "I'm okay, Aoyagi." he huffed.

Coughing up blood and flowers in the dead of the evening doesn't fit my criteria of "okay", your highness, Toya thought. "My lord, some water." his collegue came with a glass. "The doctor has been informed that you had another episode. I'm afraid there's still no news on a cure." Toya butted in, sighing.

Someone knocked on the door. The servants stood up and bowed, opening the door and letting the Queen in before exiting.

Rui's mother sat next to her son. "How're you doing?" she asked, tracing her thumb on Rui's hand. Rui couldn't say amything. Lie to her? Tell her the truth?

His mother spoke. "Rui, I know how you feel. You feel like you're responsible for it, right? His death?". Dang, she wasn't holding back. "He wouldn't blame you, you know that right?"

Rui sniffled. "I know he wouldn't! It's just I.. I feel like I could've done something to save him! I- I didn't know-" he stuttered, choking up more flowers. The Queen rubbed circles on his back, whispering soothing nothings into his ear.

"That's just it. You didn't know, neither did I, not even his own troops. Apparently nobody in his family knew either. So don't go blaming yourself." she comforted.

But that was the problem. He didn't know. He was blissfully unaware of the suffering he caused Tsukasa.

Stupid. He was an idiot for not noticing the hints sooner. He was a fool for not connecting the dots.

Maybe...

Just maybe, if he wasn't close to him, if they had never met, things would end up differently?