Author's POV:
Yuri's POV:
Flatline.
"I wonder what's happened to me... one minute I was in the school talking to the student prez and the next it's all dark and silent." I stare off into the abyss which is the only thing I can see, holding my hand in front of my face, nothing.
"Are you talking to yourself, Yuri?" Suddenly I hear his deep voice that sends shivers down my neck.
Ever so slightly the monitor begins to beep all on its own.
My heart skips a beat "Victor...! Where are you? I can't see a thing." I try reaching out to find him.
Everyone in the room stops what they're doing to look towards the head surgeon. Stressed out he quickly starts to check all the stats and runs over to the brain monitor.
"We got him." He grabs the donor jar from the head doctor "What are you waiting for?"
"Sir?" The doctor gives him a questioning look.
"Get another lung dammit! What am I speaking a foreign language?!?" He shouts loudly and watches as he runs out "If he's fighting we should too!"
"Do we continue with the procedure?" The other two surgeons look to each other panicked.
A nurse rushes over to connect the tube down Yuri's windpipe to the machine to get fresh oxygen to his brain. Two more nurses injection him with an extra IV, medication, and some more general anesthetic. Another nurse helps the surgeons finish removing the first lung in preparation to attach the new one.
"What do you mean where am I? I'm right here." As I feel the warmth of his touch suddenly the abyss we've been stuck in turns completely white.
Victor stands there in front of me but then kneels down to meet my eyes "Can you see me now?"
"What are you doing here?" I say with tears in my eyes "I've missed you!" I wrap my arms around him and snuggle into his neck.
"You can see me anytime you want you know." He chuckles lightly.
"What do you mean?" I pull away to look at him.
"This is only a figment of your imagination." He smiles.
"Does that mean... I'm dead...?" My heart drops for a moment.
"No! Of course not!" Victor shakes his head violently "It's only temporary... until they remove me..."
"Remove you?" I look at him concerned.
"I want to apologize on behalf of the real me... that I've seemed to cause you so much pain..." He sighs grabbing onto my hands "I wasn't so sure of my feelings before but I know now and I'm ready to love you if you're ready to be loved..."
"I don't know what to believe anymore..." I pull my hands away "This is all in my head."
He grabs them again "But our relationship isn't. You were getting better right? It just sucks that by the time we finally shared the same feelings you were already so far gone." He brings my hands up to his lips and kisses them softly "Sorry I take your breath away~"
"Shut up!" I smile slightly "You were never one to talk seriously like this... I guess not in my mind either."
"All jokes aside our time together was fun." Victor looks down sadly.
"What do you mean... was..?" I put my forehead against his.
"There's something I need to tell you... what's going to happen to me..." He pauses.
Suddenly the doors burst open and the doctor returns with another lung "Sir this was the best I could do!!" He places it down on the medical table next to the other jar "We had very little to chose from so this one is older..."
"Are you mad?" The head surgeon looks at him seriously "What if his body rejects it? Worse, that replacement will die out faster." He grabs onto the collar of his shirt and grips it tightly.
"I thought it'd be better than living with one lung." The doctor looks away.
"First lung attached!!" One of the nurses screams out in joy "Compatible and seems to have responded to the oxygen being bumped in."
"UGH!" Victor chokes out in pain as he grasps onto me. "I thought... I'd have more time..." he rests his heavy body against mines and we both fall back onto the floor.
"That's great!!" The head surgeon turns around to see the progress.
"Victor...?" I look down to see his feet starting to disappear.
"Don't look!" He snuggles into my chest violently causing me to look up at him.
"What's happening to you!" I cry out holding him in my arms.
"I don't have time... but one day you'll understand this moment... you'll understand why I'm leaving." He winces.
"All you keep saying is that you don't have time!!" I shout loudly.
"Let's attach the second one as soon as possible then!" The doctors cheer in a so far success.
"To put it simply. It's the effect. Of removing the Hanahaki." Victor starts to go faster "You knew the risks."
"Yeah I know but I don't want you to go..." I whisper as I feel my heart ache.
The doctors continue to detach the second lung and place it next to the first on the operation table. They take out the donor lung and place it within Yuri's open chest; attaching it to the airways and making artificial blood veins to ensure no complications.
"Do you remember those diary entries you put in your laptop?" Victor pulls away to grab my face with his hands on each side.
"Why are you bringing that up now?" I put my hand over his.
"You wrote them for me to read someday right?" He tries hiding the fact that he's in pain "Tell your sister to give it to me when I come to visit after my trip to Russia"
"What's that going to-...?" Interrupting me he continues "I want you to fill out one last entry. Before you forget..."
"I'm afraid I might." I look into his eyes.
"Go out and tell his family the good news!!" The head surgeon nods towards a Nurse and she dashed off out the operation room.
Bursting through the doors she heads down to the lounge where Yuri's mother, Yuuko, and Takeshi are. They all get up quickly and look at her panicked as if they're expecting some bad news.
"Hours of surgery but one lung is safely secured while the other is looking promising!" The nurse squeals in excitement for them "Go on home and sleep we'll transfer him into his regular room tomorrow morning for visitors if he's awake by then."
"Thank god!" Yuuko falls to the floor on her knees crying into her hands.
"Let's go I know you haven't gotten any sleep lately because of all Yuri's scares." Takeshi pats Yuri's moms back and smiles.
"I'm glad he's finally going to stop suffering." Yuri's mom tears up.
"Even if you do I'll make sure you get that message across one way or the other!" His body only up to half his torso "I know the treatment is working so all you'll have to do is accept it."
"If I wake up I won't know you anymore."
"The only cure is to have that love reciprocated."
"Or in this case wipe away all ones memories of their beloved person."
"The feelings disappear along with the petals."
"I don't want to forgot -..."
"This is the only way. Stop being difficult."
"But when I see you again. I won't love you anymore... or even know you..."
"Let's stay here... a little longer then."
It's been a few days after Yuri's surgery the doctor had finally decided that he's stuck in a coma. As hard as it was he was finally breathing on his own; once and a while he would respond when someone held his hand but nothing more. He's shown no signs of waking up soon. Victor on the other hand in Russia won his first competition and brought his team to victory. On his first trip back to Japan he cane to visit Yuri and the others only to hear the bad news. They lay in wait for the day Yuri comes back to them good as new.
"I don't ever want to wake up if I can't be with you..." I caress Victor's face.
...........
"The Hanahaki Disease is an illness born from one-sided love, where the patient coughs up flowers or flower petals. The only cure is to have that love reciprocated, or to somehow wipe away all one's memories of their beloved person. The infection can be removed through surgery, but the feelings disappear along with the petals."
...........