Chapter Text
This sucks.
This really really really really sucks.
"What am I supposed to say? 'I'm- like this with all of you?'"
The boy with wild hair, held back by a glittery pink headband glares at all his friends. His sharp eyes and tiny pupils, the image of irritation. But not even that is as bad as the itchy feeling in his throat and lungs; roots and buds crawling inside waiting to come out of his mouth in a spray of petals and spit. Gross.
Aoi nervously wrings the pencil held in her fingers. "We do too, Ryo. But not like that ."
Figures. The last two weeks have been a confusing mess of different flower petals in the colour of his friends’ eyes. Nine different colours, one flower for every person. One flower for each of his friends. They might literally be the death of him.
“What happens if I get the surgery?”
“You'll lose all your memories of us.”
He laughs a little unhinged. “F*ck that !”
“So that’s a ‘no’ to the surgery?”
"It's not a yes ."
"We're going nowhere with this."
"We'll whaddaya want me to do, Kayama?!"
Minoru clears his throat. "Are we supposed to fall in love with you or what?"
And there he goes dropping the big L word. They'd been bantering and arguing for a good twenty minutes trying to avoid the feeling altogether.
They figured amongst their random yelling that maybe it doesn't need to be romantic. Just that everyone has to reciprocate with similar platonic feelings.
Everyone?
“There are nine flowers. So there are nine of you. So I’m expecting nine confessions.”
“Because you have nine friends, yes.”
Shuuji being a jackass is usually very funny. He wants to yell at him, but there’s an amused shine in Shuuji's eye. Has been for the last ten minutes after they established that he was in fact, not dying immediately. The insecurities that made him look so small are gone in the presence of his friends and Ryo finds an odd comfort in that. That they can trust their friends no matter what.
So they hound eachother with stupid questions until they can find their stupid answers. All of them surrounding the professor because they’re still just a bunch of kids looking for guidance in the presence of one trusted adult.
“Professor!”
“Prof!”
“How do we save him without surgery?"
"Or saying the L word?”
The professor laughs. “It shouldn’t be so hard to tell someone you love them. We all feel love for each other don’t we? We all want to protect each other.”
“I mean, I guess.”
Akiharu looks at the younger boy with kindness in his shining eyes. Despite the wrinkles that surround them, they still sparkle like a child’s in wonder. “Ryo, my boy. You know I love you right?”
The boy stands in the silence. Stunned. “I really wasn’t expecting that.”
Miyuki stands confidently next to her brother. "And I love you. "
He feels something shrivelling inside him. The roots dying or maybe it’s his ego and he’s the one dying from embarrassment.
And when he's done spitting and hacking purple and blue forget-me-nots, Miyuki smiles warmly, mirth reaching her eyes. "It'll become easier to say the more you say it."
Right. My turn.
“I lo-” lo-lov- , “you too prof. A-and Miyuki."
Yeah, this is gonna take a while.