Hanahaki

Diseased

Dark stood leaning against his desk, Anti meanwhile sitting in a chair a bit away from him, knees drawn to his chest as he stared silently at the ground, just waiting for a reaction from the demon. Dark cleared his throat to break the silence, "When did it start?"

"I don't know... after the vacation? I think... I think Saleos had something to do with it." Anti murmured from between his knees. Dark growled out, "Anti... Why didn't you tell me?! I swear- I'm going to murder that god-forsaken piece of-"

"Dark."

Dark sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Alright... Alright. Let's just... Tell Schneeplestein. He might know what's going on. Let's get you to a hospital, fix you up, and as soon as we find Saleos, I will not hesitate to kill him..."

"You know the rules, you can't-"

"To hell with the rules! I'd rather be tortured for getting involved with a demon relationship than watch you suffer because of it! At any rate, if you appeal-" Dark barked out, eyes shadowed as he yelled. Anti shook his head, "It won't work. It never works. He's a terrible being, but you cannot step one foot into this situation. It's between me and Saleos. Nobody else."

Dark stayed silent at this, just watching Anti. The glitch demon had apparently found a piece of wood flooring on the ground that very much enticed him, as that was all he could focus on as he muttered, "It's fine, Dark. You need to keep up your reputation. Torture wouldn't exactly assist you. I'll go to Schneep and he'll fix this. Just... don't get involved... okay?"

Dark nodded in annoyance, and left the room without another word, the door slamming shut behind him. Anti let out a sigh, knocking his skull against his legs a few times as he groaned, "God, Anti... Don't be so stupid. So... so dumb..."

~Time Skip~

"So... Marvin pulled me out of my good night's rest for vhat exactly?" Henrik questioned, peering over his lenses in confusion. Anti laced his fingers together, nervously twiddling them, "I... well... I um... after the vacation I was like... I was vomiting and whatever... but... it wasn't normal? It was like... seeds... yknow? I don't... I don't even know..."

"Seeds...?" Henrik repeated in confusion, as if something was getting lost in translation. Anti nodded hesitantly. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Henrik grumbled to himself for a moment before decidedly standing, letting go and moving over towards a counter. He was currently in Dr. Iplier's office, Marvin having pulled him straight over to Markiplier Manor to deal with the glitch. He strung a facemask over his ears and pulled on gloves, grabbing a throat swab before returning. The doctor motioned towards Anti, who was sitting on the cot anxiously, "Open."

Anti obliged, and Henrik prodded about with the swab, eyes narrowing behind black frames. After a few moments, Henrik hummed to himself and placed the swab into a test tube vial, grabbing his stethoscope. Calmly, he placed it to Anti's back, instructing his breathing as he moved it to different spots. Once he'd finished with that, he moved back to Anti's throat. Carefully avoiding the wound, he wrapped his fingers gently around his neck, pressing down in some areas softly, "How does zhis feel?"

"Painful? I guess? But like not as bad as..."

"As slitting your own throat...?" Henrik murmured, in an almost joking fashion, but Anti merely swallowed thickly and tried to look anywhere but at the doctor. Henrik sighed and backed away, "It's swollen, definitely. And your breazhing is incredibly labored. I vill have Marvin do some testing on this sample. But... I zhink I might know vhat zhis is. Even if you don't vant to admit it."

Henrik eyed him for a moment before retreating to remove his medical equipment. Anti furrowed his brows, "I'm not faking it, if that's what you're insinuating."

"You know zhat's not vhat I'm saying. I'm zhinking zhat zhis is causation, not correlation, after all... just... zhink about zhat, hm, Anti?" Schneep challenged, raising an eyebrow. Anti's face heated up just thinking about it. Henrik quickly continued on as if he'd said nothing, "Anyvay, go give zhis to Marvin, he'll be able to identify it."

Anti grabbed the test tube swiftly, nearly racing out of there to get to Marvin's attic room he'd made for himself in the mansion of a house. Stumbling in with barely a warning (the running rampant through the house's multiple stories not counting), Anti was instantly a Marvin's side, "This is from Schneep. He said you could analyze it."

Marvin glanced over at the glitch, sighing as he slammed a very large, very old, and very dusty book closed. He took the tube, eyeing the swab cautiously. He waved a hand and it was as if all the liquid in the swab squeezed itself out. Marvin narrowed his eyes at it, studying it for a moment before pausing, glancing towards Anti, "And you said this was... yours?"

"Yeah... why? How bad is it?"

"Anti... this is... this is dark-dark magic. You're... you're lucky to still be alive!" Marvin gaped, shaking his head incredulously. Anti frowned, "So then... what is it?"

"It's called Hanahaki."

"Hanahaki?"

"Yeah... it's like a uh... a love spell." Marvin cringed inwardly as his own explanation, "It's Japanese. 'Hana' means flower and 'haki' comes from 'hakimasu' which means to throw up. You throw up flowers until you know the other person loves you back."

"But that doesn't make any sense, I'm not... I'm not in love!" Anti shook his head, backing up slightly. Marvin's features softened as he watched him, "Anti...."

"I- I mean who would I fall in love with? And who could've put the spell...." Anti trailed off, remembering what Saleos had said before to him. Marvin continued staring on as Anti slowly shook his head, "No... I... Marvin! What's the cure here? Some sort of medicine or potion or...? I don't want to be coughing up flowers forever."

"Not forever... Anti, if we had noticed sooner... If I had just realized it... I could've stopped all this..."

"Stopped this? Stopped what?"

"Anti... if the person you love doesn't love you back... you asphyxiate. You die, Anti. Your lungs fill up and you suffocate on flower petals. Because those seeds blossom, Anti. And as soon as they start doing that... you're already dead."

A/N-
I don't know what gave me the strength to finish this chapter but I did! It was rushed, I admit, but the angst will get so much better as soon as we got over the little "figure-out-what-disease-Anti-has first". I am aware this chapter is super late, but I'm happy I got just something out.

Hope you all enjoyed!