Khunbam week 2022

Lovelessness

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"Doesn't it exhaust you?"–Bam hums– "Coughing all the time?"

"No. Why would it?" Bam asked and the confusion on his face seemed genuine. Truly, Aguero hadn't seen the coughing fits cause the boy any trouble. "Even if it did, I still wouldn't mind. It's a beautiful way to show people you love them." More flowers spill from his mouth, big and small, all a different kind, probably because Bam had thought of all the people he loved.

A part of him felt a weird satisfaction watching the boy cough up more flowers other than purple lilacs. Rachel, the girl Bam chased, the one that was lying to him, didn't deserve to hold all of Bam's heart. The gator had been a better friend than her and he had tried ro kill Bam upon meeting him.

Bam bent down and picked a sunflower with big yellow petals. It's size would have made it hard to come out. Bam smiled and handed it to him. "See?" He asks, giving Aguero a flower and receiving a heart, "Beautiful".

His smile, Aguero decides later at night, at the comfort of his bed, is brighter than the sun. He coughs up a sunflower as well.

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When Bam dies, everyone coughs up different flowers. The fact that everyone had felt so strongly about Bam even if they knew him for a small time was as extraordinary as the boy himself. Aguero had briefly thought about acting as if he didn't care. "It's a shame he had to die like this," he begins because everyone has shown their weaknesses and Aguero refuses to do the same mistakes as in the past. "I wish--" he doesn't get to finish his sentence as he chokes on petals. The flowers spill violently from his throat and Aguero aches in every part of his body.

No one calls him out for trying to lie but they all look at him with pity. Whether it's because they feel sorry for him for feeling the need to lie or because of how much his love truly is, he doesn't know. Just like he doesn't know which of the two he prefers.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Aguero is once again left alone with more enemies than friends, bloody flowers filling up his throat and a part of his soul dead.

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"What would your family think of me?" He asks Ran on a cold night. The team, his team–though the title provided him no happiness or comfort–, had passed another test and had spent most of the day celebrating. They deserved it, of course, Aguero knew they had worked hard for it, but seeing Rachel that happy twisted his gut. He hadn't shown it. He couldn't. He had simply hugged her for congratulations, making friends with the enemy was all a Khun knew, and had barely managed to keep white orchids from leaving his mouth. Only Ran had seen his discomfort.

"I've never seen either of them cough," Ran tells him, "I'm not sure they can," it's impossible, of course, no matter the two women's cold nature, everyone experiences the flowers. He made a long pause, pondering this next words. "Their opinion has never mattered to me."

Aguero laughed. "That's a good thing, then." His smile dropped, his eyes left Ran and focused on the horizon, "My mother wouldn't approve either. It's one thing to love, to fight relentlessly for a love that's bigger than yourself," to become a pawn, he thought to himself, much like Kiseia had, "and another to only love what's dead."

Ran doesn't speak for a while but he feels his brother's stare. Then, after what seems like forever, Ran speaks. "Tell me about him."

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Aguero tunes out everything the rabbit girl seems to be saying, his eyes fixed on Ran and Novick. There is a flower threatening to come out from his throat at the thought that they're okay and it's all Aguero can focus on. The Slayer Candidate's threats bring him back to reality. He manages to withhold the flowers.