Azure Blossoms [SMG34 Hanahaki AU]

midnight sky

SMG4's POV

"Yes"?! It was...one of us?!

"One of us...is...killing you?!" I exclaimed, violently shaking Three. "We need to know! You have to tell us now!"

"No." SMG3 was definitely trying to hide his emotions, looking away from me. He let go of my hand and got up. "I'm gonna get myself some lunch, you can help yourself to whatever the fuck's in my fridge...if you want..."

"SMG3, this...this is ridiculous! You can't just refuse to tell us if you love one of us, and it's killing you! At least tell me..." I trailed off.

"I can't." He finally looked at me. "Because...if I tell anyone, especially you, it's going to make things worse. I've already accepted this shit, it's just inevitable now, but there's nothing anyone can do. Okay?!"

I was taken aback at his outburst. "I...why can't you..." I didn't bother finishing what I was going to say. I just summoned a portal home, slowly trudging back, lost in thought...

~~~

POV: Third person

"So you're telling me it's one of us?!"

Meggy's voice was a little too loud, and SMG4 flinched. The former Inkling apologized, but kept asking him questions. "Did SMG3 say anything else? Is it a girl or a boy? Wait- are there any enbies in our friendgroup? Wait, no, there aren't, but anyway..." 

"I'm sorry, I don't know!" Four said. "He didn't tell me anything else and I left..."

The two gathered whoever was in the castle at the time, AKA the people not currently visiting Three, since he was literally dying and everyone wanted time to say their goodbyes and spend time with him before his inevitable death. 

Four managed to get Tari, Saiko, and Bob in the room while Meggy got Mario and Luigi.

"Okay, everybody...so, uhh, I have something to announce, we all know that SMG3 is being irrational and not telling us a thing! But he recently told me...the reason he has Hanahaki is one of us."

The room immediately erupted into chaos. No one could believe what they were hearing! Well, except for Mario, who said "Well duh, it's obviously you, S-M-G-4!"

SMG4 sighed. God, this was going to be a long day.

Meggy and Four explained what they knew (almost nothing) and their theories on who it was (they had none except for Mario, who once again said it was Four).

In the end, they all left the room just the same as before, albeit a little more anxious and worried for Three. Saiko, Boopkins, and Melony were updated when they came back that night, and they didn't have any ideas either...

I didn't know what the fuck to do anymore.

~~~

POV: Third person

The light from Four's phone screen lit up his face as he opened it to his texts.

He wasn't sure if he was really doing the right thing right now, he was never great at social crap, but he honestly couldn't think of anything else. The midnight sky above the castle didn't give him any light, and he was too lazy to turn on the lights in his room.

Kind of like last night.

He sighed and tossed his cap across the room in frustration. Why couldn't he stop thinking about SMG3...?

SMG4 hated thinking about Three. It always came back to his Hanahaki, and that was something no one wanted to think about much. Three was dying. He was dying because of one of them and he was just too fucking stubborn to say...

"Gah!" Four exclaimed, snapping out of his thoughts. "I'm...just gonna do it now!"

He furiously tapped at his phone, definitely making spelling mistakes along the way (though autocorrect fixed them), and sent the text.

SMG4: Hey r u okay?

SMG4: Just checking

SMG4: since well y'know....

Four looked at his messages. They looked stupid. He definitely wrote the wrong thing.

He waited.

Waited.

Waited.

Something happened.

The Meme Guardian saw the message Read 11:34 P.M.

Still no response.

~~~

SMG3 set down his phone, feeling so many different emotions. Should he have responded to Four? Should he still respond to Four now?

He didn't know. He just laid in the grass outside the Starbucks as Karen walked up to him.

"Hey, you," her voice was monotone and sassy at the same time like always, but it wasn't as loud as usual. "You okay? Seems like you're going through a rough time."

Three sighed, sitting up. The pale moonlight made him look even more sickly than he was, and he turned off his phone. "No. I assume you heard everything. You know everything..."

Karen nodded, sitting next to him. "Yeah, your friends told me to see you before, well, you know...even if I go back to work tomorrow and I'll see you then," she said. "But I've got a question for ya. Do you really think SMG4 shouldn't know?"

"KNOW WHAT?!" Three yelled. "S-sorry."

"You know exactly what."

SMG3 was silent. "I'm really that obvious?" he asked. Karen nodded. "Well...I really don't know. Back there, I...never mind. No, I thought maybe...just for a second, I wouldn't have to die after all, you know? But now I see that I was wrong. Of course I was wrong."

Karen's bored expression softened. "SMG3, he should know. Besides, you can never be sure. I remember...being uncertain about so many things in life. But look where I am now."

"You're a single mother of 3 who works at a Starbucks full of hellish wild memes."

The cat scowled at him. "Alright, fine. I guess I'm not the best example. But at least I'm still alive, right?" she said.

SMG3 wasn't great with conversations, but even he knew not to respond to her "right?". He was about to end the conversation by himself but then he felt the familiar feeling of impending doom. Hanahaki.

So far today, he'd only coughed up petals, though the amount of blood had definitely increased. Was this his punishment for driving away Four? The disease had affected him 3 times today already. 3 times.

"Sorry Karen gotta go!" he exclaimed, rushing to the Void.

The blue petals came

Three could feel his heart beating fast as he barely had the strength to run.

from his lungs and heart

He collapsed to the ground in front of the swirling, inky black portal.

the azure blossoms killing him 

The Void was dark and cold and SMG3 leaned over it as he coughed.

was unavoidable from the start...

Blue. Blue roses. Not just petals anymore, there were flowers too. 3 of them.
SMG3 didn't know what to do anymore, fuck his life. Dried blood and bile was splattered around the edges of the Void, and Three couldn't bear to stay here any longer. He ran inside with the flowers and threw them in the trash, using the last of his energy to stumble over to his bed.

The bed was cold. He wished Four was here so he would be warm. He wished Four loved him so he wouldn't have to die.

Why did this have to happen to him...?