EFFLORESCING EDELWEISS ( s. todoroki )

24; hemlock

HANAKO WILL DO IT.

And not a day later because the clock has barely reached 11PM and she's still walking through the empty streets, her palms stinging from the crescent cuts she made with her fingernails. There is still evening dew sliding from the verdant leaves that reflects the iridiscent sky above and Hanako presses digits with her stubby, scarred fingers and waits waits then a beep. His voice is the first she hears and she doesn't know if she should be weeping underneath willow trees or bouncing and lilting in joy across acres of peach blossoms that he is still awake at this ungodly hour full of fiendish promises.

"Todoroki," she begins in a hushed voice, masking the traces of tears with perfected skill, her fists steady as she takes one step then another into an uncertain play that is bound to end in Shakespearean tragedy. "I need a favor. Can you go to the rooftop in my apartment? I need to give you something."

"Can it wait until tomorrow?"

A breath escapes Hanako's lips and it wisps into the air like an aroma of freshly baked goodies carefully propped in a beautiful basket embellished with a pretty blue bow. "It can't," Hanako continues with her voice increasing in pitch. "Please."

A pause, then, "I'll be there."

Hanako terminates the call before he can say more and weigh her steps more and each footstep taking her nearer and nearer toward the aforementioned location feels like lead on the ocean bound to be gobbled up by the aquamarine waters and sink into the bottom swelling with mysteries yet to be solved. The stars continue to watch, all cold and unfeeling like the gods who only have apathy toward mere mortals who wished to be deities.

It's almost midnight, but the fact is irrelevant. The sky is the same color as Hanako's skin tonight save for the void of stars. Hanako is not a girl meant for daytime with its sunflowers, geraniums and daffodils, with bumblebees buzzing around while the golden sun peeks from vanilla clouds. She is a girl who was always meant to belong in cold evenings. That is why she was never meant for friendships and flowers for gratitude and apologies. Without noticing it, Hanako has arrived in her destination and she doesn't want to— she will, she will, she can, she has to!—to take a single step forward, or in this case upward since her destination is the rooftop with its gapped metal railings and rusty metal locks.

Hanako arrives at the entrance to the rooftop, it's open and the first thing she sees is the fusty old leather couch she used to stay in during scorching nights that couldn't be alleviated by the barely functioning electric fan and open windows. She looks to the sky above for some semblance of motivation, but the waning moon only resembles a frown of disappointment and her footsteps weigh heavier than they should when she sees Todoroki's back as he sits amiably in the rusty old railings.

Hanako feels something on her chest and the pounding and aching continues, almost incessant actions blossoming in the flowerbud that is her body. She grasps her chest feeling the blossoming emotions, the ache— Hanako opens her mouth and a tiny petal escapes her, only this time it is so red, full vicious red, lady danger that reveals so much about what's to come— time is nigh and she cannot murder it with moments of serenity spent with a boy she has to kill.

Todoroki just sits there, unaware of her presence and she stands barely a feet from him. Hanako raises her trembling hands slowly. ( I have to! )

And she can just push him now, send him spiraling downwards or she can make the flowers treat him as their next flowerbud with the nasturtiums and birds of paradise. The pink geraniums, the white lilies of the valley and blue irises with the white fluffs from dandelions supposed to grant wishes that can never ever be granted. Hanako can push him now, get rid of him forever and her hands draw closer and closer like an impending kiss, then it only takes mere seconds for moments shared to occupy her mind, but who is Hanako trying to fool? She's given up on it long before and anything that follows is just denial manifesting in her. She holds the cloth of his back and wraps her shoulders around him, burying her head on his nape. Tears fall. (Stupid Hanako, didn't we promise to go out with a bang?) She tries to hold him tighter.

"Hanako?" Shouto asks, his voice uncharacteristically soft and he turns to her and accepts her embrace, burying her head unto his chest and she can hear his heartbeat and there are heartbeats you feel for lovers and what she's hearing in his chest is not that. And it is the slow symphony of friendship and Hanako is so so so grateful to not have festered inside his heart like a thorny, diabolical flower.

"I have... to go..." Hanako pauses. "Thank you, Shouto."

"You're welcome," he whispers. "See you later."

Hanako's heart breaks.

She smiles. "See you later." A farewell? An order? A refutation? A question? A lie? A promise?

Hanako promised to avenge Papa once upon a time and she broke that promise. She's probably  going to break this one too.

( Hanako walks away and more more more more more so much so many so damn much overflowing numerous more more more more more petals fall fall fall fall fall— )

° ° °

h e m l o c k ;
you will be my death