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It started right after the incident at the community house.
Tommy had been lying in bed, trying to sleep away the day's events and be well rested for doomsday when he started hacking violently. It was only blood that he coughed out that day, and he thought little of it. Oh well. It didn’t matter much if he was sick. He could still fight the same.
But then, as doomsday came upon them, the first petal came out. It was a light blue, and covered in blood, but it was a flower petal, nonetheless. Tommy thinks the petal was from a hydrangea.
In the midst of battle, the next petal was choked up. This one was from a purple flower with white around the edge. A petunia, Tommy thinks, right before a dog lunges at him and tears a gash in his side, wounding him. Ire seeps into his veins and he pushes down the urge to cough, running back into the fight.
He screams and he yells at Technoblade, a man he once called his brother, telling him that he betrayed tommy. Meanwhile, Techno screamed back, making it oh so clear that he believes it was Tommy who was the one to betray him, not the other way around (and in the back of Tommy's head, something tells him that Techno is right).
The petals coming out of him only become more frequent as time goes by. Tommy doesn’t know why it’s happening, but as he sits in the prison alongside Dream, waiting for Sam to let him out -to let him escape from this hell- he really decides to dwell on it.
And then he dies. Dream kills him.
He’s sitting in Pandora, getting beat by Dream one moment, and the next he’s in a train, and he’s getting off of it. He looks around, trying to figure out what’s happening. Is he dead? He doesn’t feel dead but-
But Dream bashed his head in with a potato.
He has to be dead. There’s no way he isn’t.
His eyes scan the area and he finds Wilbur, his brother, staring wide eyed at him. Tommy slowly approaches. He’s confused, but Wilbur knows what to do most of the time, he’ll know what to do now. He stops in front of his brother.
“What are you doing here Toms?” Wilbur says, looking up at tommy. Tommy sits down.
“I don’t know,” He says honestly. “I just- Dream he- he fucking-” His breathing becomes labored and suddenly Wilbur starts tracing circles on his back.
“Do you want to play competitive solitaire with me?” Wilbur changes the subject.
Tommy nods and-
And he’s coughing. Even in death he’s coughing up flowers.
It’s a red carnation this time, and beside him, Wilbur gasps.
“ Hanahaki .” Is all he says, and suddenly he’s not there anymore, and Tommy's in the void.
When he wakes up, almost three months later of being in the void and being with Wilbur, it’s with a pounding headache and voices shouting above him. He can hear Sam, and he can hear Dream. His eyes shoot open and he looks around frantically, trying to find Dream so he can get away from him. Sam’s voice sweeps over him and he moves as close as he can to the lava just in time to see the netherite blocks go up and trap Dream in.
“Tommy! Come one!” Sam calls, and Tommy listens.
After that, the flowers stopped coming. They didn’t exactly disappear, but they didn’t show up anymore. Now it was only the blood every now and then. Though that changed when Quackity told him that Techno was in the prison.
The moment those words were uttered, the flowers came back. Helleborus was the flower that came up this time, and something like stress and anxiety reared its ugly head. Tommy pushed those feelings down. It only made the flowers stronger. More frequent.
Now, as the alarm for the prison blares, he sits, coughing up whole bouquets of flowers. He knows. Knows what's going on right now. Knows that Technoblade is breaking Dream out of prison as we speak. He knows, but he can’t move. He can’t do anything. Not with the flowers that keep emerging from his throat, scratching at his insides and making him wheeze. Making it hard to breathe.
Tomy tries to suck in a proper breath. He tries, but he fails.
He pushes himself up onto unsteady legs. He knows he’s going to die soon. And even if Dream is out of the prison, he doesn’t know if the man would revive him. He might, but it could be years from now. He has to tell him soon. Before he goes.
So, with that, Tommy is making the trek to the community portal. He needs to pass through the nether, and that's what he does. The lack of oxygen in the shitty atmosphere doesn’t help his dying lungs.
He moves down the path. A path he knows far too well. A path he walked and walked down almost everyday when he was still staying with him. Prime he misses those days. He wants them back. Badly.
Tommy reaches the end of the path to the portal that sits just off the netherrack, held up by obsidian. He goes through the portal, focusing on the sound of the swirling portal instead of his last breaths. The cold hit’s him immediately and the quick change knocks his breath out of him. Not that there was much left in the first place.
He paces through the chilled snow, all the way to his brother's house. At least he thinks of Technoblade that way. When he makes it to the house, he walks up the step and raises his fist, ready to knock on the door. But he pauses.
Should he really be doing this? He should just go home and pretend like none of this happened. Like he didn’t come all the way here to get answers and tell his brother something so fucking important to him, shouldn’t he?
Tommy breaths past the flowers in his lungs, and knocks on the door. He only has so long to live. Might as well just say what he has always wanted to say while he has the chance.
While he waits, another bloody flower comes out. He stares at it for a long time before he discards it in the snow. He gets rid of it just in time for the door to swing open violently, making him flinch. Technoblade stands before him in his pajamas and a massive axe in hand. His gaze slides down to Tommy and he stares at the boy.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Well I don't want to talk to you.”
Techno tries to close the door on Tommy but Tommy puts his arm in the way. He makes a pained noise when the door hits him, but he doesn't move his arm. Techno opens the door again, waiting for him to speak.
“I only have, like, ten minutes. So please, just let me talk to you.” Tommy practically begs.
Technoblade scowls but steps out of the entrance, letting Tommy inside the cabin. “You only have ten minutes then.”
Tommy nods, walking over to the couch and sitting down. He coughs into his sleeve and petals come out, getting on his arm. He hides it when Techno comes over and sits on the chair next to the couch.
“Why did you do it?” Tommy asks. He only has ten minutes, might as well make the most of it.
“Do what?”
“Break him out.”
Techno sighs, putting his face in his hands. “Because I owed him a favor, Tommy.”
For once, Tommy doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t tell Techno what's on the tip of his tongue like he wants to. He needs the man to be somewhat okay with him seeing as he will probably die in his house today.
Tommy has one last thing to say, so he opens his mouth and-
He closes it. He stands up, and makes his way to the door.
“That's all you wanted to know-” Techno calls out to him, but it’s cut off by Tommy's aggressive coughing. Techno stands up immediately, rushing to Tommy's aid.
Tommy falls to the ground, hacking into his sleeve again. He had a lot less time than he thought he did. Techno grabs his shoulder and twists him around so he can see Tommy. Another flower pops out of the boy's mouth.
Techno gasps. “Tommy-”
Another flower.
“Techno-”
Tommy’s vision is starting to go black and he can’t breathe. He grabs at his throat, clawing and scratching to try and breathe.
Right before his vision fails him, he mutters what he’s wanted to say to Techno for a long time.
“I love you.”
Techno's screaming for Tommy are the only thing that can be heard for the rest of the night.