(Requested by @25Layla11)
(Real life highschool AU. Inumaki isn't mute, he just rarely talks and perfers sign language (italics are sign language).)
(I tried my best to explain HanaHaki disease, look it up if I didn't do a good enough job for your prestigious ass.
(Lastly, warning for mentions of blood.)
It's late morning, grey clouds curling around the sky and sprinkling raindrops onto the window next to you. This is one of the main reasons you like sitting by the window in your classes. Maybe it's just an excuse to get distracted.
The bustle of students around you is drowned out by your focused gaze on the scenery outside of the building. Focused enough that you don't notice someone coming up behind you until you feel a hand on your head.
You jump at the contact, moving your head to the side and looking at the intruder out of the corner of your eye. At the sight of droopy purple eyes and white hair, you drop your guard.
"Toge! There's my favorite white haired boy." You day happily, reaching up and ruffling his hair.
He scrunches his face up, "Don't let Gojo hear that." He signs to you.
You glance to the front of the class where Gojo looks to be trying to balance eight pencils on his face.
"I kind of want him to hear." You say, watching Inumaki sit in his regular seat next to you. The desks were put in pairs of two, so it was like your own little island with him. "Maybe then he'd get some sense knocked into him."
Inumaki stares at Gojo for another second before turning to face you again. "I would pay to see his ego crushed."
"Honestly we should just ask Fushiguro to do it, he would do it for free."
"Anyone would do it for free."
"You're right." You say laughing.
The class finally settles down when Gojo stands by the board, prepared to start the lecture. They were always interesting, but not always in a good way.
He does get points for seating you and Inumaki together, you'll give him that.
It doesn't take long for your gaze to redirect itself back out the window and onto the shaded sky. The lecture didn't seem important right now. Honestly, nothing felt important enough to pay attention to. You had other things to focus on.
And if those things come to fruition, you're fucked, and not in a good way.
Lightly speaking, you have something called HanaHaki disease. It feels so dumb to believe, since it's the most illogical thing on the planet, but the knot in your throat convinces you otherwise.
The first time you noticed was when you coughed and felt a splatter of something hitting your arm. Upon further inspection, you saw that it was a trinkle of blood and a couple flower petals. It threw you for a loop, and caused you to research for hours about what the fuck it means. No you weren't going to the doctor.
You found out that it's caused by unreturned love toward someone. Basically, you love someone but they don't love you back. Or you don't know if they do.
Out of the gate you realized that it was Inumaki who you loved. It's a bit weird, you see him all the time. It feels weird to be dealing with a life or death situation and not saying anything about it.
You know you have to tell him. Obviously you have to. You're just scared that he won't feel the same and then it's all over for you. With that logic though, you'd still die at some point due to the flowers filling up your lungs. Not pleasant at all.
You look at Inumaki out of the corner of your eye, watching him play with his own fingers. He's your best friend, and it's insane how hard you fell for him. Fucking feelings, they're the dumbest thing on the planet.
Because of your spacing out, the class seems to zoom by and you find yourself quickly packing up and making your way out of the classroom. Inumaki follows next to you, looking down at his phone.
"Are you walking home with me today?" You ask casually, bumping into him lightly to get his attention.
He looks up and gives you a thumbs up, making you smile softly. How is his thumbs up even cute?
The walk to your house is short, but the knot in your throat grows as you continue, itching to be let out. You try not to look too suspicious, taking deep breaths and keeping your eyes focused in front of you.
Inumaki pokes your cheek, but you refuse to look at him. It would be even worse to cough up blood onto his face. Gross.
Of course, he doesn't give up, continuing to poke your cheek and eventually walking in front of your path to stop you.
He gazes at your face, tilting his head to the side.
"Hm?" You hum, as if asking him what's wrong. How that would make him less suspicious you couldn't say.
He continues to stare at your face, eyes narrowing ever so slightly at your refusal to talk.
"Don't turn into me." He signs quickly. "Your voice is one of my favorite things."
You lose some composure at that comment, getting sweaty under his gaze. It apparently had a greater effect on you then you realized, because the urge to cough gets more intense. Before he can sign anything else, you're stepping around him and walking quickly toward your house.
You hear him running behind you after a couple seconds, so you pick up your pace as well. It's not like you want to play a stupid game of 'tag' with him, but you really didn't want to have to explain this. You slap your hand over your mouth, finally getting to your house and bursting through the door.
At this point you don't care if he came in after you, you just want to get to a trash can or something.
Throwing yourself into your kitchen, you open the the trash can and start coughing into it, trying to ignore the burning feeling running up your throat and making your eyes water.
A few seconds later you hear Inumaki's hurried footsteps behind you until he's sliding onto his knees next to you and placing a hand on your back. You cover the top of the trash can, trapping your face down with the blood and petals blooming from your mouth.
It was not pretty, and you're sure he didn't want to have to see it. No matter how rank it is, it's better then looking pathetic to him. Even just seeing his pitiful face might cause you more pain then necessary.
However, he silently urges your head up by rubbing his palm along your back, reaching up and placing it inbetween your shoulder blades. You allow yourself to sit up straight, closing your eyes slowly so you wouldn't have to look at him.
His hand reaches up, touching your chin and pulling something off of it. You open your eyes to see a petal in his hand that stuck to your chin from the blood gluing it down. Your face scrunches up and how gross that must be, but he doesn't seem to mind it. Instead, he's inspecting it, eyes wide.
"Toge, I-" You begin, voice hoarse and devastated.
He reaches up a hand, pulling his shirt sleeve down and wiping the blood off your chin with it. The action causes you to go silent, his soft touch shocking you. After he pulls away, he stares at you harshly.
"Explain. Now." He signs.
"I just coughed up flowers. Are you not at least a little disturbed?"
He shakes his head.
"Okay fine, I'll explain." You take a breath. "Its called HanaHaki disease. Basically, my lungs are filling with flower petals because I love someone who doesn't love me back. That's in simple terms."
He stares at you a little lost, hands hesitating in the air. "...Who is it?"
"I can't believe that's your first question. Out of anything."
"Y/N."
You stare at him, apprehension layering over your face. "If I tell you, I'll probably die. So I don't really want my life in your hands right now. You'll probably get charged with murder."
He glares.
"Okay okay! Sorry. But I'm being serious, and I'm going to die either way."
"Do you know that they don't love you back?"
You cast your eyes downward, staring at the floor intently. "Even if he did, I'm too terrified to try. I'm not really ready to die yet. I mean, I haven't even finished the show I'm watching yet!"
You hear him sigh, and soon after there's a finger placed under your chin, forcing your head up.
"T-Tell me." He says crackily, voice straining under the unusual circumstances. "I'm not l-letting you die."
"Toge you shouldn't talk-"
"Anything to g-get you to tell me." He coughs lightly. "Please Y/N. I'm b-begging."
His hand is on your shoulder, gripping with strength you've never felt from him before. He's shaking, obviously terrified.
You know that he knows it's him. Why else would he be this desperate.
You bite your lip, averting your eyes to the side. "It's you." You say quietly. "Of course I love you. You know that."
"I l-love you too." He quivers.
You look at him with your eyebrows furrowed, still not convinced. "I can't tell if you're lying or not so I don't know-"
Before you can finish your sentence, he's leaning forward and pressing his lips forcefully against yours. The impact causes a sound to erupt from your throat.
He's still shaking as he pulls away, hand now pressing against your cheek.
"Please believe me." He croaks. "Please. P-Please. Please."
You feel the coiling in your chest unravel, and the knot decreasing in your throat. So does that mean he actually does love you? You had no idea.
"I can't believe you kissed my bloody ass mouth." You say laughing.
He just rolls his eyes, bringing his shaky hands out in front of him again. "I was losing my shit, what do you expect?"
"You're right. Just don't make yourself talk that much again if you don't want to."
He nods, relaxing forward and melting into your chest. You smile, wrapping your arms around him and holding him tighter against you.
Hopefully he never gets you flowers for anything, you don't think you'll ever look at them the same.
(This was a little out of my comfort zone but lowkey fun to write. I'm fulfilling a lot of requests recently so I might not have my usual ideas for a while. It's all in good fun! I also bought some manga today I'm super excited about it.)