⌈ Hanahaki - Lapidot ⌋ COMPLETED ✓

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{ Edited on 02/03/21 }

Peridot was abruptly awoken by a rough cough. She slowly opened her eyes, instinctively squinting and shielding her face due to the blinding sun shining in her eyes. Was that cough her own? She didn't know. Confused, the small gem slowly sat up, looking around the barn. She quietly covered her mouth, not wanting to wake the small pumpkin sleeping beside her. Once she had shaken the grogginess out of her head, she decided that it would probably be best if she got up.

She carefully squirmed her way out of pumpkin's grasp, getting to her feet. Once she was in the clear, the silently climbed down the ladder she had asked lapis to get, since she couldn't rely on her wings to get her everywhere. There were just some things she would have to do herself. Once she walked out of the barn, Peridot looked around. Everything looked fine. From her perspective, at least. Were the plants watered? Were she and Lapis in the process of making a new meep morp? Before she could internally answer that question, a rising tickle in her throat had completely broken her train of thought.

The originally small tickle grew stonger, which had eventually made Peridot cough, which lead to a small coughing fit. Peridot lifted her hand to her mouth. She didn't want to make any noise or draw any unwanted attention to herself. It took a few minutes, but the fit seemed to have passed. She retracted her hand from her mouth, only to feel something soft and silky in the palm of her hand. She hesitantly opened her clenched fist. It was a flower petal, and not just any flower. With closer inspection, it appeared to be a forget-me-not petal. That color. It was blue. The color reminded her of Lapis, and she wasn't sure whether to be flustered or terrified. Coughing up flower petals of all things couldn't be normal.

Mere moments later, there was another tickle growing in the back of her throat; but it was stronger this time. Oh god, she had to cough again. Once again, she had let out another muffled cough. The only difference was that instead of one petal coming out of god knows where from her throat, there were four.

As if the slight terror from before wasn't enough, now she was absolutely petrified. All she could do was stare at the petals which eerily resembled the one she loved. Finally mustering up the strength to do something, Peridot crushed the petals in her fist, letting them drop to the ground. Now she knew something was wrong with her. In all her years of life, she had never seen this happen to another gem. Could it be a human thing? Maybe. She hadn't been on Earth long enough to know the answer. Hell, she used to be afraid of large masses of water molecules until she learned what they were.

She turned around to look back at the barn, praying to the stars that she hadn't woken anybody up. Luckily, all seemed still. She then noticed Lapis was in her own little corner of the barn, sleeping soundly. Had she always been there, or had Peridot been that distracted? The gem let out a sigh of relief, and decided to distance herself from the barn a little. The last thing she wanted was another chance to ruin the sleep cycles of her loved ones.

She walked for a bit, beginning to zone out as she focused on the sound of her footsteps travelling across the dirt. Before she knew it, she had somehow ended up in their large patch of corn. This was the perfect spot! Since she was alone, she might as well look into her recent "symptoms". The internet always seemed to have an answer for everything, so she was sure she would find something that would help her. Luckily for her, she had always had her tablet strapped to her arm. Always. It wasn't too uncomfortable, and it was pretty convenient when she needed it most.

She unstrapped her tablet from her arms and laid it on her lap. She opened her search engine for a quick search, typing "coughing up flowers" in the search bar. She wasn't sure what to expect, when when the results did pop up, she froze.

"Hanahaki disease..?" Peridot mumbled to herself. It didn't sound real, almost as if it was something entirely fictional. But if it wasn't real, why did such a vague search give her so many results? She nervously gulped and clicked on the bolded link. Her eyes quickly scanned across the screen as she read the article, growing desperate as to know what this so called "disease" was.

She continued reading the article, until she was stuck on a certain sentence. "Symptoms are caused by one sided love of the affected individual's love interest." Peridot spoke quietly, looking away from her tablet. What did this mean?

She knew she loved Lapis (though she wasn't all too sure of the definition of love, herself), but she didn't know if Lapis loved her back. Did Lapis feel anything for her at all? She looked back at the article and continued reading, hoping to find a cure for this disease. As she scrolled, she eventually did come across the cure, though she wasn't too happy about the answer.

She had to tell Lapis how she felt.

She wished she could tell Lapis, but it wasn't that easy. She couldn't just walk up to her and say "Hey I know we've had some history, but I think I love you". What if she got angry with her? What if she said no? That would be so embarrassing! Not to mention that it could potentially ruin their entire relationship.

Peridot buried her face in her hands. If she felt powerless before, she definitely didn't have any control over the situation now. No answer seemed like a right answer, and every right answer she did come up with ended up requiring an amount of bravery that she didn't have. She groaned, letting herself fall in the dirt in frustration. She decided that she wouldn't tell Lapis. It was risky, but it seemed like the best option for now. There was no way she could tell Lapis how she really felt. And she certainly didn't want Lapis to worry about her, that was for sure. She hated being a burden on others.

Lifting her face from her hands, she stared up into the endless sky above her. As much as she didn't want to, she had to talk to someone about this. Maybe Steven? He seemed to know more about this stuff than she did.

This sucked.