Hana

Yellow Carnation

For the next few days, Lance stayed at home. He ran to the grocery store, but people stared too much. One time, a kid pointed at him to show his friends, and Lance replied by sticking out his tongue at them. Any medical supplies or medicine was delivered to his house, so other than receiving packages, he didn't need to open the door.

Lance was reading a book, curled up on the couch when his doorbell rang. He checked the time on his phone: 3:13. He got up and picked up his oxygen tank backpack, carrying it in his hand. He opened the door to an expressionless Keith. He tried to close the door, but Keith grabbed it and forced his way in.

"Dude, seriously," Lance shut the door and turned to face him, "you have a bad habit of grabbing that damn door."

Keith paced a few steps, scratching his head in thought.

Lance was extremely annoyed with him, "Keith! What the fuck are you doing here? Get out."

Keith finally made eye contact with Lance, "Alright so I find you coughing up blood in a park, and I bring you to the hospital, but hear absolutely nothing about you."

Lance set his backpack down angrily, "That's none of your business." He crossed his arms.

Keith leaned into his face, "I carried you to the hospital! I cleaned your blood from my clothes! Now, you're completely ignoring me! What the fuck man!"

"I never wanted to get involved with you!" Lance coughed a couple times from the force of yelling.

"You could have at least said 'thank you!'"

"Why do you even care?!"

"Anybody would if somebody almost died!"

Lance's throat tightened, "I don't want to fight with you." He bent over slightly to cough a few more times. When he leaned back up, he found pink in his hand. He shot Keith an angry look, eyes tearing up from the pain, "Go home."

Keith stared in disbelief as Lance hacked up more blood.

Lance forced the coughing to stop for a second, "What are you doing?" He shoved his arm, "Leave!"

Keith put a hand on his back, "Are you alright?"

Lance's lungs continued expelling blood until he fell to his knees. Keith jumped down to him and tried to think of a way to help. Lance shoved him away, and threw up chunks of pink. The coughing subsided for a minute and Lance stayed on the ground, leaning over a pile of his own blood.

Keith gripped his shoulder, "Lance, what is wrong with you?"

Tears fell off Lance's cheeks and mixed with the red and pink. Without making eye contact, he sniffled out, "I have Hanahaki Disease."

Keith stopped for a moment in surprise. Then he grabbed Lance's shoulders and shook him, "Why haven't you gotten the surgery?!"

Lance shoved Keith's hands off and coughed up more cherry blossoms and blood.

When he finished, Keith shoved his shoulder, "What is wrong with you?! Just get the surgery! It's got like a 93% success rate!"

"Well, I'm the 7%!" he screamed.

"What?" Keith asked in disbelief.

Lance wiped his mouth with his sleeve, "I did." He sniffled and sat back on his knees. Turning to Keith, he whimpered out, "but it didn't work."

Keith's eyes teared up as he stared at Lance's tear and blood-stained face.

"The flowers grew back. Now, they don't know what the fuck to do with me." He wiped his cheeks. "We are all just waiting until I die."

"How long do you have?" Keith choked out. A few tears fell down his face.

Lance smiled sadly, "I was supposed to be dead months ago."

Keith's face scrunched up as he let out a few sobs. He hid his face with his hands and looked down.

"What are you crying? You're lungs aren't trying to kill you," Lance chuckled, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Keith wiped his face, "Because I care about you, damn it." He stood up and went into the bathroom, returning with a towel. He knelt down and set it on the pile of blood and flowers. Lance watched him intently, hiccuping as he calmed down. Keith had wiped up as much as he could, then stood to retrieve another towel. He put a hand on Lance's cheek and wiped the blood and tears from his face. Then, he quickly dried his own.

Keith looked like he was going to clean Lance's hands, but he threw the towel to the side and wrapped his arms around Lance, "I'm sorry."

Lance kept his hands away to keep blood from getting on Keith's clothes.

Keith pulled back and put his hands on Lance's cheeks, and gently kissed his forehead. Then he hugged his head, "I will help you. I'll fix this."

Lance let out a sad breath, "How?" He hiccuped a few more sobs.

Keith kissed his hair, shushing him. "Don't worry. I'll fix you."