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The flowers had begun as small slivers of maroon red, falling into her hands with specks of crimson blood, nearly blending in with the color of the petals.
She blinks at the bloodied petals, thinking she hit her head too hard today in training (which has happened on the few occasions she sparred against Tsu, like today.)
⋆☽ﾟ
Red roses.
Red roses standing for passion, romance, true love, desire.
⋆☽ﾟ
"Y/N, why didn't you say anything?" Mina breathes, her hand trailing along Y/N's back, the closest she can get to the root of the pain that's been wracking her for months—worse than any bone she had ever broken or every bullet she had ever taken.
"Never thought...never thought it was that serious. They're fucking flowers, not tuberculosis," Y/N's endeavor at insouciance fails miserably as her body racks with the force of her coughs, staining her palms red with blood and petals.
"I'm pretty sure they're just as bad."
The maroon petals—red roses—had been the only evidence Mina Ashido needed when Y/N had walked out of her dorm with a handful of them, spotted in blood, asking about them and what it meant for her.
"Y/N, with this many flowers...you've had to be suffering for weeks. Have you told anyone yet?"
No, she hadn't. For weeks, the burning in her chest, in her throat, was bearable. Cough drops soothed the scorching of her throat when she coughed up the petals, and an inhaler helped the chest pain. She hoped—foolishly, she'll add—it was just a crush, hoped she would lose interest and the whole coughing up flowers thing would blow over.
But now, looking at the thorny stem and rose buds in her hands, she realized that wasn't the case. She had fallen.
And she had fallen h a r d.
"Mina, please...you can't tell another soul about this."
"Y/N...you'll die if you don't tell someone."
"I know," the words leave a sour taste in her mouth, worse than the taste of blood lingering on her tongue. Worse than the tightness in her throat and the burning in her chest because she knows. "I know. Trust me, I wouldn't be asking you to keep this a secret—"
"L/N, Ashido, everything alright?"
Kirishima's voice stops Y/N in her tracks, the air in her lungs dissipating the nanosecond her gaze shifts to the blond haired boy next to him.
Oh, shit.
Her throat closes the moment his eyes settle on hers, chest burning like her Quirk had turned against her and set every part of her aflame when his vermilion eyes narrow, astute and piercing.
