(Completed) Bloody Petals {Miritama}

4

On Thursday morning, Tamaki woke up way before his alarm to that ticklish feeling at the back of his throat that was becoming more and more familiar each day. He immediately threw aside his covers and ran for the bathroom just in time for the coughing to start.

Today's coughing fit lasted a bit longer than the others he'd experienced so far, and by the time it finally passed there were enough yellow petals floating in the toilet water to recreate several flowers. Groaning, he flushed them down the drain and sat back against the cool tile wall, wiping away the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead.

There were small splatters of blood on his hands and he felt gross, but he didn't want to get up off of the floor to take a shower. The rational part of his brain was screaming at him that if he didn't stand up soon and shower, his mom would find him and she would find out the truth, but his heavy limbs simply wouldn't respond.

He wasn't even aware that he had closed his eyes until he heard the sound of his alarm from his room. He snapped back into consciousness and groaned again, pushing himself up off the floor and trudging back to his room to turn off the alarm. Then he went back to the bathroom to shower and get rid of the remains of the blood on his hands.

He got dressed and walked out to meet his mom for breakfast like he did every day, then met Mirio on the sidewalk next to their houses just like every day. But he was nervous about what he was doing after school. He'd already told Nejire about the appointment and she'd even insisted on joining him. Eventually he gave in and told her she could go with him, but not into the room with the doctor. She reluctantly agreed, but she was the only other person who knew. He planned on telling his mom that he was staying late to study for a test with Nejire.

He watched the minutes tick by on the clock in the classroom, each one feeling like just the blink of an eye. When the lunch bell rang, he didn't feel like eating, so he made up an excuse about forgetting his English textbook in the classroom before heading to the bathroom. He'd come to expect at least one or two coughing fits while he was at school, and today was no different.

Thankfully, this side of the school tended to be empty at this hour of the day, which meant he had all the privacy he needed to hack up petals in the very last stall, ignoring the buzzing of his cell phone in his pocket. It was probably Nejire or Mirio trying to check up on him.

Once he was sure he was done with the petals for the time being, he got rid of the evidence and returned to the cafeteria. He stayed with Nejire and Mirio, listening to them joke around and tell stories until the bell rang and they had to return to class. The time seemed to pass just as quickly as it had in the morning, and before he was ready, school had let out and there was only about an hour until his appointment.

As they'd planned, Nejire met up with him at the bus station after changing out of their school uniforms. Mirio had already gone on ahead, so the two friends got onto the bus together and started making the trip to the Hanahaki specialist's office. Nejire kept squeezing his arm reassuringly, but it didn't do much to ease Tamaki's nerves. As had been the case for everything that day, the bus ride seemed to pass by in a few seconds.

Nejire accompanied him inside the building, gave him a quick hug and a supportive smile, and took a seat in the waiting area. Taking a deep breath, Tamaki approached the front desk and introduced himself. Thankfully, the woman working the desk was nice. She handed him a clipboard and a pen and told him to fill out the papers. He took them to the chair beside Nejire's and filled it all out.

He'd never liked going to the regular doctor as a child. There were always scary pictures and even scarier tools on the walls, and being surrounded by so many sick people had always made him uncomfortable. But this office was very different from a regular doctor's. Instead of posters informing patients about proper hygiene and emergency procedures, there was practically nothing, no sort of decorations whatsoever. On one wall, there was, however, a photograph of a wilting rose, which struck Tamaki as ironic and a little creepy, considering the nature of the office.