Wilted Petals | A Hermitcraft Story |

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Well shit.

That can't be good.

Grian stared down at the bloody petal that sat in his sink.

Now Grian was no medical expert, but he was almost certain that coughing up flower petals was not a normal occurrence.

And he felt the cough returning.
After another coughing fit, three more petals came up. Grian realized that whatever this was, it was getting worse. And fast.

Grian poured himself a glass of water and sat down in front of his computer. A ping came from his Discord, this time from Scar. It read:

'Hey Grian, are you alright?'

Grian ignored it for the time being. He had bigger problems to worry about.

A quick Google search later and he had found his ailment's name. Hanahaki Disease.

A disease stemming from unrequited love.

"Huh, I guess it's not just romantic love that causes this."

Grian spent hours digging through articles, reports, stories, and even fanfictions. Whatever information he could find would be helpful. Even if it meant looking in some... unconventional spots.

All throughout his search, his computer repeatedly pinged, alerting him to his many unread messages from presumably the other Hermits.

Grian took a deep breath, which immediately triggered another coughing fit. Two glasses of water and three petals later, Grian finally checked his Discord. Sure enough, it was many of his friends-

-Maybe friends wasn't the best term at the moment

Well, many of the other Hermits expressing concern for him.

Grian ignored them all for now, although he knew confrontation was inevitable. "Just not now," he told himself, "Not yet."

About an hour later, he had a good sense of what exactly he was dealing with.

Hanahaki Disease, a disease that stemmed from unrequited love, a disease that fed off of a broken heart.

The only way to cure it was if his feeling were returned, or if the disease was removed surgically.

That, however, was one hundred percent not happening.

Surgery meant Grian would have to first find a doctor who even believed this disease existed (which would not be easy considering the fact that this disease was believed to be fictional), and the surgery seemed to have lasting consequences.

Surgery also meant Grian would lose the love he had for his friends, and potentially the ability to feel love in general. It also had the risk of destroying any memory he had of his friends, and even after all that the surgery wasn't even guaranteed to work.

Otherwise, Grian had at least two weeks to live. In some lucky cases, people had been known to live for months. The longest known instance of someone having Hanahaki disease and surviving was eighteen months. But Hanahaki was an aggressive disease, and judging by how fast his was progressing, Grian didn't think that he was going to be one of the lucky ones.

Now Grian's only chance of being cured was if his friends returned his feelings.

His love for them, that is.

And he was sure that they had made their feelings very clear.

Grian sighed, and checked his messages yet again. This time, however, he was greeted with a message in the Hermitcraft Discord Server.

'Hey, can everyone make it on tomorrow? I'm going to be hosting an event on the server and I kinda need everyone there for it to work. Thanks :), -Scar'

Something in Grian's gut told him this was not going to go well.

But that was Future Grian's problem.

Grian checked the time, and to his surprise it was already 11pm. So he decided it was time to get some sleep.
But just before he turned his monitor off, he heard the familiar sound of his computer pinging, alerting him to another message.

Grian sat there, his finger on the power button, debating whether or not he should see what it was.

He sighed and said to himself, "Future Grian has enough on his plate already."
Grian sat back down and opened Discord on his computer. There he saw that he had a new message from Mumbo.

'Hey can we talk?'

Grian had been around long enough to know that the phrase "Can we talk?" never meant anything good.

Now Grian had a decision to make.

To talk to Mumbo or to not talk to Mumbo.

Grian knew that smart option would be to get this conversation over with rather than continue avoiding the inevitable.

It was a shame Grian hated smart decisions.

Grian grabbed his mouse, about to close Discord and go to the bed for the night. But before he could, he was struck with yet another coughing fit.
This time however, Grian felt himself trembling as well.

Then he heard the last thing he wanted to hear.

"Grian?"

Grian's head jerked up as he realized what had just happened.

He had called Mumbo by mistake.

"Grian, you there?"

Shit shit shit shit shit.

Grian sat there, unsure of what to say. But he knew it was too late now, so he just decided to try and get through this call.

"Hey Mumbo."

Grian heard Mumbo let out a small sigh of relief. Mumbo then asked, "You doing alright Grian?"

"Oh yeah, I'm doing great."

'Great,' he thought, 'Now I'm lying to my best friend.'

"Are you sure?" Mumbo sounded skeptical. Grian started getting nervous.

"Oh yeah, everything is fine here Mumbo, really."

Grian then began having yet another coughing fit, resulting in four more petals in his hand. Suddenly, Grian felt very aware of the blood staining his hand.

"Grian, you really don't sound alright to me."

Grian threw the petals onto the ground.
"Oh yeah, no, it's fine. Just a cough."

"Grian?"

"Yeah?"

"You just said 'Oh yeah' three times in the past two minutes. You are not alright."

Now Grian was getting really nervous. Mumbo sounded very skeptical of him.
But things couldn't get worse for him, right?

"Should I come over tomorrow, Grian?
You really don't sound well."

Oh god they were so much worse now.

"NO! I mean- you can't! Scar has that thing tomorrow right?"

"Grian, I'm sure Scar wouldn't mind pushing his 'thing' back because you were sick."

Shit shit shit shit shit-

"Mumbo it's really fine," but before he could finish he was overtaken by yet another coughing fit. God these were becoming a pain.

"That settles it," Mumbo said, "I'm coming over tomorrow."

"Mumbo wait," but before Grian could finish, Mumbo left the call.

"Well shit."

Grian had a feeling Future Grian was not going to have a good day tomorrow.