** Third Person's P.O.V **
Goth lit up as he was finally informed to be part of the search party after days of searching. He packed the diary in a sling bag and other essentials that they need. Now they were in another room, looking at a map, marking any possible place that Palette could've gone and stayed. They said they were getting close for they found broken branches and luckily, footprints. The footprints were yet to be confirmed because they don't know how the underside of Palette's shoe look like.
Goth stared intensely at the map, trying to concentrate. "Glaring at the map won't tell you anything." Fresh broke the silence. Goth sighed, the forest in the map looked so packed with so much trees, he doesn't know if Palette moved to another location or not.
(I made the map)
Turquoise - Possible Places
Red - Marked Locations
Orange - Borderline (SZ/Safe Zone)
Purple - Names of Places
Places that were marked red were already explored. Goth needed to think out of the box. A light bulb went off his head before marking the place 'Sai River' with a marker. Everyone in the room grew confused, "What if he went over the border?" Goth suggests. Everyone started to murmur. "But why would he go over the border?" asked one of the men. "If he were to be in one part of the map? Where would he be? Indubitably, Sai Lake!"
"Impossible, it'll take days to reach Sai Lake or even locate it. How can he possibly be there?"
"Well there's one way to find out."
Fresh nods his head, writing down the coordinates. He knew Palette must be there despite the fact that cases of death were filed in outskirts of the border's vast and thick forests.
And that's when they began their search. They packed supplies, tents and other necessities needed. Goth led the whole team through it. They reached the first border and exited it afterwards. It was getting late for they were walking for hours while taking a break every few kilometers. They decided to set camp here since it's a really busy day. This is one of the most complicated cases of a missing person in decades. Goth refuses to take down the case even when they lose hope.
As they set up the bonfire, they continued to marking places that they would go next. Soon, they all fell asleep, awaiting for the next day to come. Morning soon finally came, they ventured out once more encountering a lot of obstacles on they way, Goth wondered how Palette endured these. With every step he took, it gave another massive amount of guilt as he felt like he was guilt tripping once again. He sighed at that memory. He snapped out of his thoughts when they continued walking through the thick under bush of trees and plants.
It was getting dark again, so they set out of camp somewhere near a clearing where water was available. As they were setting up, Goth wandered off to the river to get some water. As he was filling up the bucket with water, he noticed something odd. There was something in the mud, upon closer inspection, it was red and blue. Soon, he began to realize that it was blood and petals. Flower petals. Examining the flower petals, he noticed that it was apart of a forget-me-not flower. The flower that he assumed Palette puked out. He was researching about the disease, learning the fact that the flower petals that they throw up depends on the person you fell in love with. Goth knew at that moment that were close into finding Palette.
Soon, he finished filling up the bucket, he quickly returned to the camp site, informing them of what he found and telling them that they were getting closer to finding Palette.
Soon, they finally reached the border that lead to their marked location. They were looking around, trying to find anything that suspicious or something that contained any life. Sadly, they couldn't find any.
"B-But, he has to be here! I know it."
"Sorry, bud. I guess case is closed. I'mma go call a chopper, so we could go back quickly."
Goth wasn't about to give up just yet. He frantically searched around, trying to find signs of life. As he was walking around. He found something blue.
"There! Look, someone's there!"
Goth knew that blue color anywhere. That's what Palette was actually wearing during the fair. He knew it was. The team finally reached the place where Palette was at. A willow tree. They noticed that it was very dusty and the fact that he was laying beside a corpse.
A human corpse.
Goth inches closer to the tree. A few steps afterwards, forget-me-not flowers began to grow rapidly beneath his feet as he stepped closer and closer. The flowers didn't stop growing. Soon, the flowers started spread where ever land and grass you can see. The flowers started to grow on Palette's bony skin. Goth stared at him with worried eyes. He was researching about this but he didn't research anything that involved whatever this is. He began to reach out to him.
"Stop!"
A voice echoed, they snapped their heads to the direction of the voice. Soon, a woman came out. She apparently didn't look like a threat but they were on guard. "Get away." She warned Goth, but he reached even closer. "Why?" Goth asked the woman.
"Who are you? What are you even doing here?"
"I'm Sai, I'm just here to warn you about your dying lover over there."
"What do you mean, Sai?"
"Don't you see those flowers that are rapidly growing? Don't you know that touching him will only make it worst?"
Goth shot her a confused expression. Not knowing what she was telling him. "Look, I went through the disease as well. What you're seeing here is that he is currently in the state of 'Denying.' " She explained, now even more confused expressions were shot at her.
"Denying is like trying to accept the fact that you won't be loved back, even when the one that you liked also likes you back, everytime you feel their presence (thus the occurance of growing flowers), you push them away(thus the occurrence of wilting the flowers), like you're denying them."
"Why is he denying me?"
"He's denying you because he knows that YOU don't like him back even when you do. He just doesn't know that you do."
"How do you know?"
"Trust me, I've been through it and I'm gonna help you."
Goth shot her a skeptical look, debating whether or not that he should trust this woman. But he didn't want to throw this away, so he reluctantly agreed for he was desperate to get Palette back and the fact that he needed to learn from his mistakes. "Wise choice." She stepped closer to the willow tree, the flowers didn't grow beneath her. She then proceeded to whisper things that Goth couldn't understand into his ear. He assumed that she was trying to wake him up because it was working. She pulled away and dragged Goth closer to Palette's filed of vision.
"Make sure he sees you, there, you go talk it out to him, if the flowers start to will, then it's working."
She gave him a pat on the back before rushing out of Palette's field of vision. Palette's eyes fluttered softly, his vision a little blurry from sleeping for days without waking up as it was easier to cope with his burning throat. As his vision cleared, his eyes sockets widen. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Goth was right in front of him, a concerned look plastered against his face. Palette blushed softly, taking a look at his surroundings. "Hey, there, angel." Goth cooed, extending out his arm for him to take. Palette looked at him in awe, soon, the flowers around him started to wilt away, now there was nothing but ashes. His throat was soon clear, it didn't burn anymore but it was very sore.
"H-how did you find m-me? I-I thought that y-you don't l-l-like me.."
"Don't say that."
Goth then locks their lips together as he wraps his arms around his slender waist, pulling him closer. Palette returned the gestuee by wrapping his arms around his neck. In the background, you can hear Fresh and Xahji screaming his lungs out, screaming at how their ship finally sailed and that he got to see them kiss for the first time despite that, PJ was trying so hard to make them calm down because they were causing a huge scene. The team was looking at the married couple and Goth's sister weirdly but let it slide nonetheless.
"Why don't we go home and talk this all out, hmm?" Goth suggests as they pulled away from their kiss. Palette blushed, looking away from Goth's intense staring. He chuckled, pecking his cheek, effectively making him blush even more.
Soon, a helicopter flew by. They rode it back home, Goth and Palette talked it out after that, finally becoming official. Fresh was ecstatic when he heard that they were dating, he and Alphys couldn't stop fanboying over it, it was also stressful for their lovers because they were only talking about that one same topic about them dating and it was getting annoying.
"OMGGG, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BROTHER IS DATING MY FRIEENDD, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!!!!"
Xahji, Fresh and Alphys screamed in delightp. Their lovers groaned, here they go again.
"I call bridesmaid!"
"I call the best man!"
"I call the priest!"
Xahji and Fresh stopped, looking at Alphys weirdly. She stared back. "What? It's amazing to be the one who'd wed(?) your own ship, am I right?" The two agreed, saying how much she had a point, nodding at the idea of being the priest for your own ship. "Oh, COME ON, THEY DON'T PLAN ON GETTING MARRIED JUST YET, THEY JUST STARTED DATING FOR A FEW WEEKS, NOW CAN YOU STOP AND GIVE ATTENTION, WE DIDN'T HAVE A TRIPLE DATE BECAUSE OF THIS." PJ yelled, butting in their conversation.
"Sorry!" They apologized in unison.
They went back to their date, talking about a different topic that they were sure their lovers would care to join.
-meanwhile-
"Hehehe."
"What are you laughing at?"
"Oh nothing, I just caught your sister and my friends talking about us again. They don't seem to stop." Palette answered as he stared at their friends passing by, not letting the conversation go as he ate his cupcake cutely. Goth chuckled, wrapping an arm on his boyfriend's small waist, pulling him closer.
"Let them be."
"Alright, if you say so. And by the way, weren't you going to tell me how you fell in love with me?"
Goth immediately blushed, remembering how he spent days, reading his diary out of curiosity. "Are you okay? Your face is telling a lot of things." Palette pointed out, reaching his hand out to touch his forehead, thankfully, he didn't have a fever. His face turned and even darker shade of red, as Palette stared him down intensely.
"Okay, why don't you save time and just tell me, you did promise."
"I know, I know, but I don't know how you would react if I told you, it's embarrassing really."
"How is 'falling in love with me' embarrassing? Hmm?" Palette asked, staring him down with his adorable, cute puppy dog eyes. Sadly, Goth had to resist it.
Goth looked away, trying to find something to distract Palette from this conversation they were having. Palette knew this, and he ain't having it. He turned Goth back to his attention, glaring at him softly. Goth gulped down all of the remaining saliva down his dry throat.
'Damn, you look hot but actually your cute face doesn't suit that.'
Palette raised a non-existent brow.
"I read your diary."
"WHAT?!"