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When Floyd first met Riddle, he was immediately drawn to him. He wasn’t quite sure why, but he was entranced looking into his eyes. Piercing gray eyes that made him stop in his tracks.
Then, he wound up on the receiving end of his rage. His face turning a shade of red that couldn’t have possibly been healthy. It was entertaining! He was entertaining.
It was that simple.
Riddle quickly became housewarden of his dorm and people knew not to mess with him, lest they wanted to lose their heads. Floyd was the exception, being able to easily deflect his unique magic. Even when he didn’t, he didn’t care about the consequences toying with him would bring. Riddle was just fun to be around.
That’s all he thought it was.
He was proven wrong when he first saw Riddle smile. The Heartslabyul vice-housewarden (who he never really bothered to pay any attention to) had said something that made him smile. He was too far away to hear what it was, but the look on his face made him stop in his place. Gray eyes crinkled with delight, practically shining. It was a very un-Floyd-like thought, but he thought it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
It quickly ended when Floyd approached the redhead.
Riddle just always seemed to be in a bad mood when Floyd was around. Floyd couldn’t understand why, when he felt the exact opposite. Being around the redhead always made his day better. Well, almost always.
The point is, Floyd couldn’t make Riddle laugh or smile. So, he settled for the next best thing. Making him angry. Any reaction was better than none at all, and seeing the Heartslabyul housewarden so animated was beautiful - even if it was a bit destructive.
Obviously not many would agree with Floyd if he were to say such a thought out loud. Everybody seemed to think the small boy was terrifying when he was angry like that. What they thought didn’t matter though, because Floyd was just fine seeing the boy explode with rage so easily.
Thoughts like this are probably what made him seem so eccentric, even compared to other students. Still, he didn’t realize quite how far gone he was until he actually succeeded at something he never thought he would.
It was a normal day. There was absolutely nothing special happening. To Floyd, that meant it was worse than normal- it was boring.
Though perhaps there was something that made it a not so normal day, because he didn’t even have his usual energy when he saw his Goldfishie. He sat down across the table from him, where he sat flipping through an ungodly amount of books.
Floyd had wanted to play with him, but instead managed to get distracted, just staring. Very unusual for him, no matter how out of it he was.
Placing his pen down on the table with a little more force than necessary, obviously irritated by something, Riddle started, “If you have something to say, you should say it.”
“Goldfishie always gets so annoyed when I talk, but now he’s annoyed that I’m not talking?” He pouted, “Goldfishie’s so confusing.”
“You’re never this quiet. You take every given opportunity to be a nuisance. You must have some ulterior motive for sitting so still for so long.”
“What? I can’t just admire Goldfishie~?”
“You-” Riddle cut himself off, a light flush covering his face. So different from how red he gets when he’s angry… But so pretty. Floyd couldn’t help but think about how he wanted to see Riddle make that expression more often.
“Besides~ Jade and Azul are all busy at the longue and I don’t feel like doing work~”
“You shouldn’t slack off! If you were in my dorm I’d have your head for speaking like that.” The scolding wasn’t unexpected.
“Ehh? But they’re doing just fine. Azul is getting a load of work done with all his new little minnows working under contract.”
A sigh. “I suppose that’s what’s deserved for trying to take the easy way out of passing exams.”
“Yeah. Did you see Crabby and Mackerel? Even though they can’t use their magic they still don’t think about anything they do before they do it and they keep making problems. It’s so funny!”
Riddle huffed in amusement, a small smile gracing his lips. It felt like time completely stopped, all to admire something so beautiful. “They do often fail to think their actions through. It’s something they’ll have to work on if they want to keep their heads.”
Floyd realized that he was staring again, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He made Goldfishie laugh. It was a small one, but a laugh was a laugh!
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was just thinking, Goldfishie has a pretty smile~” The reply was sincere, even with his playful demeanor. At this, Riddle flushed a pretty pink, which soon turned into an angry red. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Hehe, at least I made Goldfishie smile today.
Even while getting yelled at, the smile didn’t leave his face for the rest of the day.
So yes, Floyd had a problem that was only getting bigger by the day. A Goldfisie sized problem. The question was, was he going to try to fix this issue?
Now, since when was he known to solve his own problems? Exactly. There’s your answer.
It wasn’t as if such a problem was dangerous. A little ridiculous? Maybe. Irritating to those around them? Definitely. But dangerous? No. Probably not at least. Well, in comparison to the other things Floyd Leech has done? Definitely not. And when you put it like that, there’s really no reason to stop!
It wasn’t dangerous, so it was fine.
It wasn’t dangerous. Until it was.
It was little things at first. Things that were easy enough to ignore. An itchy throat, a cough that never quite went away, and an almost constant ache in his body that lingered just enough to be barely noticeable. It was all rather annoying, but as long as he had a distraction he was fine.
And Floyd was good at keeping himself entertained.
Though, you could only ignore your own problems for so long. He had been especially tired, and Jade had been trying to convince him to get out of bed. When he finally sat up he let out a dry cough, and alongside it, a few rose petals fell from his lips.
He stared at it confused, silently wondering if he was seeing things. Maybe Jade put some weird mushroom in his dinner again and he didn’t notice it. However Jade seemed completely bewildered.
“Floyd… You haven’t been eating flowers, have you?”
Still half-asleep, he responded, “I haven’t! What kinda question is that?”
“Ah, forgive me. Though, perhaps it would’ve been preferable if you had.”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
Sitting down on his bed, he continued, “First let me ask you, have you been experiencing any strange symptoms recently? An itchy throat or a constricting feeling in your lungs perhaps?”
“Hmm~ Yeah, but it’s nothing big. Why?”
“Ah. Well, it’s most likely that you have hanahaki disease.”
“Hana-whatie disease?”
“Hanahaki disease is a disease that accompanies strong unrequited feelings for someone. It causes flowers to grow and spread in one’s lungs, making the recipient cough flowers.”
“Eh? That sounds annoying. How do I make it stop?”
“Your feelings have to be returned. Alternatively, there is a surgery to have them removed, though it’s still in its experimental stages. Not enough is known about hanahaki.”
“It’s just some flowers. It’s nothing to worry about, right? S’not like it’ll kill me or something.”
At this, Jade couldn’t hide his grimace, “Actually, if untreated, it can cause death.”
“Eh??? I’ll just get the surgery then!”
“While the surgery will solve the problem, it will also remove the feelings for whoever you have hanahaki for. You’ll never be able to harbor any sort of feelings for them again.” A pause. “Do you know the root of your affliction?”
“Hmm…” He immediately thought of stormy gray eyes and a bright red face. “Goldfishie… Maybe. Probably.”
“...You’re sure?”
“Mm… He’s always so mean to me even though I just wanna play. But Goldfishie’s so pretty even when he’s angry. And have you seen him when he smiles? Then he turns like- twenty- no, a hundred times prettier!”
“I see…” Seeing how happy Floyd seemed just talking about Riddle… Jade let out a fond smile despite himself. “So, I take it the surgery is out of the question then?”
Floyd pauses to think before responding, “Yeah…”
They got ready for class, and that was that. Knowing about his new problem didn’t change much about his behavior as it probably would most. This was Floyd after all.
Floyd knew about his problem, but still spent time with Riddle. The more time the two spent together, the more Floyd couldn’t seem to resist touching him.
Riddle adamantly hated it. If the way he’d always slap his hand away, or raise his pen if he got too close was anything to go by. But Floyd loved the close proximity a bit too much.
But Riddle was so warm and small! Could you blame him for always wanting to grab his hand or wrap arms around his shoulders?
Another day, another bouquet of flowers. A sore throat, and a fatigue like nothing he’d ever felt before. He tried his best to ignore it, but it wasn’t easy for anybody who looked closely enough at him to miss.
Maybe the flowers aren’t so bad though…
He was at Heartslabyul with Riddle when- “That’s a rather nasty cough… Are you getting sick?” He reached out to touch his forehead (conveniently ignoring how Floyd immediately leaned into his touch).
Floyd hadn’t even really registered his own cough. He’d gotten used to it over the past month, even with how it only got worse, and how it was getting harder to keep the flowers down with how more of them kept coming up each time.
“You don’t seem to have a fever… Still…” Funny to think this is the same person who had just been telling him off a few seconds ago.
“Aww~ Are you worried about me?” The change of character had been extremely amusing.
Turning a bright red, he sputtered, “Of course n- I- You-” Pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath before starting again, “You are insufferable.” Looking over to see the much too pleased look on Floyd’s face, he let out a sigh. “I’m going to make tea. It should help with your throat.”
“What’s this? I always knew Goldfishie cared about me~” He was far too happy for a dying man, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care- seeing the way Riddle turned a light and pretty pink, muttering under his breath and calling him a ridiculous eel.
With the way Riddle fussed and checked his temperature and made Floyd tea… While the difference from his normal demeanor was amusing- more than that, Floyd couldn’t help but be happy. For Riddle to show that he cared at all… His heart fluttered, and along with it, he felt the petals scratching at the back of his throat. Drinking the tea, he forced them back down, not wanting the flowers to ruin the moment.
Maybe the flowers aren’t so bad, if they let me stay close to him like this.
As if the roses weren’t enough, different flowers started forcing their way out of his throat. And apparently these flowers knew more about his feelings than he did. Flowers he’d never seen or cared enough to note came out in increasingly generous doses.
Pink, red and white camellias. Purple and red carnations. Pink and red hyacinths. Gladiolus. Hydrangeas. White carnations. And every color of rose you could possibly imagine (excluding black and dark crimson), since apparently red roses weren’t enough to show how deeply he felt. No, he had to puke up the entire rainbow of them too.
Jade sat down with him to decipher their meanings, and part of him wishes he hadn’t. It felt like his damn lungs were mocking him. He was sure Jade was enjoying his suffering too, no matter how worried he was underneath.
Even if he never said out loud who he was vomiting flowers for- if it wasn’t already obvious- the gladiolus and camellias only confirmed what the roses didn’t.
All of the flowers seemed to more or less say he was completely beyond help with how completely infatuated he was. The flowers’ words, not his.
I mean, seriously? Longing. Passion. Desire. Fascination. Admiration. Enchantment. Sincerity.
…
Sincerity?? Seriously????
He was gonna puke. And not a single flower petal would be seen in that puddle.
And to really top it all off- love at first sight.
All this to say, having flowers tell you about yourself can put you in a bad mood. And if you’re Floyd, this is much more undesirable than if you were anybody else.
After decoding all of the flowers’ meanings, he was in a terrible mood. Everybody stayed out of his way, not wanting to find themselves on the receiving end of it. Though not everybody could manage that.
He had some little minnow in his corner- ready to release all his pent up anger when a voice stopped him.
“Floyd. What are you doing?”
Turning his head to make eye contact with Riddle, he answers honestly, “Ah~ Goldfishie! I was just teaching this little minnow a lesson for bumpin’ into me.” Said minnow looks around anxiously, obviously trying to find an out. This obviously proves to be difficult with the grip Floyd has on his collar and his back literally against the wall.
“This treatment for an accident is a bit extreme don’t you think?” Riddle tries to be the voice of reason, but reason rarely ever gets through to Floyd.
“Hmm… Nope!”
Letting out a sigh, Riddle takes a moment to think of what to say. “Do you really wish to waste your lunch period on such small endeavors? I wouldn’t doubt that you’d accidentally skip lunch just for this. You really should hurry on to the cafeteria now.”
Huh? Goldfishie was being nice to him?
There was a tickle at the back of his throat.
Suddenly he wasn’t interested in starting a fight (or more of a beatdown) . Surprised, he relaxed his grasp on the poor student he had just been about to assault, dropping him onto the floor. Not about to miss this opportunity for escape, the student immediately scrambled to his feet, running away from the eel.
Floyd stared blankly at Riddle for a moment, before a grin spread over his face. Almost knocking the Heartslabyul housewarden over as he wrapped his arm around his shoulder.
He had been determined to stay in a bad mood, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit better with Riddle’s presence. Even with the threat of flowers spilling out at any moment.
“H-hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Goldfishie didn’t want me to skip lunch but he’s not eating either! So let’s eat together!” Moving his hand to grab onto Riddle’s arm, he tugged him along the way to the cafeteria.
“Floyd! Wait- you can’t just grab onto me like that!”
While he did squirm in his hold for a bit, he eventually resigned himself to his fate and let Floyd drag him along. They spent the entire lunch period together, successfully improving his bad mood, also keeping him from harassing some poor student.
Even if Floyd wanted to, there was no doubt he wouldn’t be able to hide his disease from his brother. Jade knew him better than anybody. Since he knew him better than anybody, he didn’t even try to convince him to get the surgery. Azul knew Floyd well enough, but tried it anyway. Each try was met without any results.
Despite how weird and gross he thought his feelings were, he wasn’t going to give them up. Taking the surgery would completely remove his feelings for Goldfishie. And despite fearing next to nothing, he found himself scared.
He couldn’t give up his feelings. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn’t . And despite himself, he was afraid . Floyd Leech was afraid. Afraid of rejection. If the circumstances were different, maybe he’d keep trying. Over and over until he could win him over. But like this? An outright rejection could speed up the flowers’ growth. And then… Then he wouldn’t get to try again.
So he decided to just keep living in the moment. He’d act impulsively and enjoy the time he had left with Jade, Azul, and with his Goldfishie. Dying would be super lame, but he’d rather die later than sooner.
A few months pass and it only gets worse. He swallows down the petals after each cough, not wanting to deal with the mess that they make. They taste terrible and sometimes he smells more blood than he does flowers, but he gets used to it. He distracts himself by playing and messing around. And while he probably shouldn’t, he keeps playing with Riddle.
He’s not entirely sure how it affects his disease, but he’s pretty sure that it would’ve kept getting worse either way. Even if he tried staying away from the Heartslabyul housewarden, seeing him at all seems to strip him of what little self-control he has. He’s drawn to the other like a magnet, and the more he tries to resist the pull, the harder he clashes with Riddle when they meet.
He wants his attention whenever he can get it- negative or positive- it doesn’t matter. Whenever he sees him talking to somebody else, he can’t help the want of Riddle being the one talking to him instead. It’s silly- more than silly, it’s stupid- and he knows it. Still, he can’t bring himself to fix the issue. Which is why whenever he can get those beautiful gray eyes to look at him, he does his best to make sure they don’t look away for as long as possible. There was just nothing quite as enthralling at having Riddle’s eyes on him.
Really, there was no getting over this disease for Floyd.
“What’s this?” Floyd is in the Monstro Lounge with Azul, when he slides some kind of tincture over to him.
He picks it up, turning it over in his hands, watching the golden liquid swish back and forth.
“A potion that should help slow the growth of the flowers. I would have had it done sooner, but some items took a while for me to get my hands on. You should take it no more than once a day, and it will help with the more minor symptoms.”
Floyd tilts his head, a bit curious, “Wooow… Azul is bein’ real nice today. So what’s the catch?”
Letting out a sigh as he readjusted his glasses, Azul went on, “There is none. It’s already enough work dealing with you normally, but dealing with you choking out flowers is much less desirable. Especially when you’re working.”
“Uh huh.” Half listening, he tries the potion, immediately recoiling, “AUGH! What the hell??!? This tastes awful!”
“It’s not exactly meant to taste pleasant, it’s simply meant to do its job.”
“No way I’m taking that every day! I’d rather keep choking on the flowers. Bleh…”
Apparently, he wasn’t given much of a choice. First thing in the morning, Jade would pour it into his mouth, effectively pissing him off, but also rather efficiently waking him up. His brother would just smile, saying that he was simply glad he would get up so easily in the mornings now.
Sometimes, he really hated his brother.
Despite its absolutely disgusting taste, the potion really did help. He had less coughing fits and it was easier to ignore the itch at the back of his throat. Eventually though, the flowers started to come back in full force at the end of the day.
He’d spend twenty minutes or more just heaving petals up into the toilet after his shift at the Lounge. It was never pleasant, but it was probably better than coughing them up all throughout the day.
But with how much easier the flowers had been to deal with during the day, it only seemed like encouragement to stick around Riddle as much as he could. The redhead was clearly fed up with him, but after a while of the Leech twin clinging to him so viciously, he had stopped snapping so quickly at him as much. He still made his annoyance clear, but he tolerated a lot more than he probably would have a few months prior.
Somewhere along the line, Riddle also got used to Floyd almost constantly wanting to touch him. Every chance he got, Floyd would put his head in the crook of his neck, his arms around his waist- or on a particularly good day for Floyd, when Riddle would let him- his head in his lap.
Maybe Floyd had gotten greedy. Maybe it was a hunger that just made itself more present now that he was dying. But he took every opportunity to feel the warmth that came from the redhead. It was addicting.
It didn’t skip the notice of those close to them either, how Floyd seemed to be gentler with Riddle, or how Riddle allowed this almost clingy behavior. Still, nobody said anything.
Unfortunately, no good thing lasts forever.
This was also the truth for the potion Floyd had been taking to keep the flowers at bay. It happened all too quickly. In the middle of Professor Crewel’s class- because apparently he could never catch a break in that class.
Everything was going fine; his partner for the class was doing all the work and he was perfectly content with drifting off. Of course, Crewel had started to scold him for this. When he went to complain about how he didn’t feel like it, instead of what he had begun to say coming out, he started coughing.
It had started off with a few petals, nothing he couldn’t handle. But his body seemed to turn against him, and he couldn’t control his coughing at all. He couldn’t even stop to gasp for air.
Whole heads of flowers came out, scattering the floor with color. So much all at once… He felt lightheaded, his vision blurry. He could feel blood dribble down his chin. It was so painful. Tears started to stream down his face without his permission, and he wasn’t sure he could stay awake… He hadn’t even realized when he hit the floor, before completely losing consciousness.
It was honestly more of a shock that so few people had known for so long. It’s not exactly easy to hide a disease like hanahaki. Especially a case this strong. But to say people were shocked to hear that Floyd Leech of all people had gotten hanahaki would be an understatement.
Maybe people thought he was too erratic or messy to properly develop feelings for another person. Maybe they thought he was incapable of it with how he treated others. Either way, nobody saw it coming.
He woke up in the infirmary a few hours later, and kicked up enough of a fuss that they probably let him out a bit earlier than they should have. His body was sore and he just wanted to sleep. So he went back to his dorm, and did just that.
The next day, when Floyd sat down next to Riddle in the library, the other had barely acknowledged he had joined him at first. The only sign he noticed being his writing briefly stopping before continuing again.
Rather than wait, he decided to just get the conversation over with.
He put his hands behind his head, nonchalant, “Isn’t Goldfishie gonna ask about it?”
A pause. “Who is it?”
“Hmm… It’s a secret!”
“Floyd.” He stopped writing, turning to meet his eyes, “You should confess. Or get the surgery. It may still be in it’s developmental stage, but at least it will put a stop to… what you’re experiencing.”
“Nah. Don’t feel like it.”
Riddle put his pen down. “This is serious!”
“Yeah, I’m serious too. If I wanted to get rid of it, I woulda done that already.”
Riddle broke their eye contact, “Have you… at least tried confessing?”
“Don’t feel like getting rejected~” Floyd stared up at the ceiling, wanting to finish the conversation.
“I see…” The redhead goes to pick his pen back up before continuing, “You really won’t tell me? I could try to help you-”
“How? Goldfishie’s not really a romancing expert is he?” Floyd quickly cut him off. He really didn’t want to hear any kind of advice from the person who was quite literally the root of his current problems.
Riddle scrunched up his face, “Well, no- but all the same, doing something is better than doing nothing, isn’t it? I’d rather… I’d really rather you didn’t die from this .”
He said the last part so quietly Floyd almost wasn’t sure he heard him properly. He stared at Riddle wide-eyed for a moment, noticing the shade of pink he had turned, very pointedly not looking in Floyd’s direction.
“Wow~” Rather pleased, he put his head in Riddle’s lap, smirking up at him, “Who woulda guessed that dying was all it took to get Goldfishie to be nice to me?” This earned a glare from Riddle, but he didn’t get pushed off his lap, so he’d take that as a win.
Really… It’s not fair that he’s so pretty. Floyd was doomed the moment they first met eyes. When their eyes met, he never wanted to look away. Goldfishie really has the prettiest eyes…
A cough forced its way out of his throat before Riddle could manage a retort. He sat back up, petals scattering across the floor. He raised his hand to try to catch them as they came out, but it didn’t really matter with how many were coming out. Right… Jade was busy and got up early that morning. He’d forgotten the potion.
One especially loud cough resulted in a whole flower coming out of his mouth. Not parts of the flower or just a few petals- no, an entire, intact flower. A rose. Light pink. Though it was difficult to see that with how it was almost completely covered in blood, staining the petals from their natural color.
He looked at the rose, numbly wondering how it made his insides look if he had whole flowers freely taking over his body.
A hand touched his shoulder- firm yet gentle, “Floyd.” Turning his head in response, he felt fabric being pressed against his face. Riddle was using his handkerchief to wipe the blood from his face. When Riddle had finished and pulled his hand away, it took all of Floyd’s self control not to grab his hand and place it back on his face.
Perhaps his patience had been rewarded, with the way the redhead grabbed his hand so tenderly and started to wipe the blood from it as well. He did the same for his other hand, placing the rose to the side. When he was finished, the white handkerchief had been almost completely stained red. Rather surprisingly, there were no complaints about how it was ruined now, but instead a quiet request. “At least consider telling them how you feel. I understand that most dislike the idea of the surgery, but you should still try to confess. Please at least think it over.”
What was there to even say to something like that? He was still holding Floyd’s hand in his. He was so warm. And what wouldn’t Floyd give to have Riddle hold him like this every day? Feeling uncharacteristically flustered from how genuine Riddle was being, he leaned over, putting his head onto his shoulder, hiding his face away from him, “...I’ll think about it.”
This was probably the first time he had ever felt so unsure of what to do. He’d usually do whatever he felt like whenever he felt like it, but he didn’t want to lose something like this if he was going to die anyway. But the unbearable aching feeling of want made him want to just confess. If there was even a small chance his feelings could be returned…
This train of thought was something he could have never imagined for himself. What in Twisted Wonderland had Riddle done to him? Maybe he really had been enchanted like the flowers seemed to say. Some kind of spell would be an explanation as to why he felt like this.
A few weeks had passed, and the potion had pretty much completely stopped being effective. He’d cough up flowers during class, and sometimes petals would fall out of his mouth even without a cough to accompany it. He had a habit of wiping his mouth off with his sleeve, and his shirts almost always had fresh blood stains on them.
Jade would take the time to get the stains out for him, but he didn’t see the point when he’d just get blood on them all over again.
He could push past the fatigue and suffocating feeling if he was in a good enough mood, but you can’t simply ignore your body no matter how hard you’d like to. One good thing that came from it, was teachers seemed to take it easier on him, not even bothering him for sleeping in class. Though dealing with the conversations wasn’t super fun. Although, he did find it funny seeing Professor Crewel, who was the most harsh on him, worry over him. He never thought he’d see something like that. Still the concern on peoples’ faces got boring pretty quick.
He skipped classes without much consequence. It was probably better anyway, because once he started coughing, it was hard to stop. It was disruptive, and for once, his being a nuisance wasn’t on purpose.
He spent most of his free time with his Goldfishie once classes ended. Azul had been letting slack off at the lounge too, saying that him coughing up flowers would only scare away customers. Not caring about how true his reasoning was, or about any other reason he’d just let Floyd off, he was happy to not have any responsibilities for a while.
Sure the lack of responsibility was nice, but he spent a lot of time with nothing to do other than feel like garbage because of the flowers spreading through him.
He felt hot and sick, which said a lot considering how he had been sick for the past several months. This however, was so much worse. He felt like he had been lit on fire from the inside out, and everything was hazy and fuzzy in the most excruciating way you can imagine.
His ears were ringing a bit, and he opened his eyes. He could barely see the ceiling… As his eyes came into focus he saw his brother worriedly hovering over him. He tried to listen to whatever he was saying, but he felt so disconnected from the rest of his body…
He woke up with a bit more clarity later. How much later? He wasn’t sure.
He felt a hand combing through his hair. Even though he felt hot and uncomfortable, he found solace in the fingers against his scalp. As warm as it was, it was comforting. He groaned a bit as he opened his eyes and the hand stopped, pulling away. He wanted to chase it, but he didn’t have the energy to.
“You’re awake.” He looked over to see Riddle sitting on a chair by his bedside. There’s something he really never thought he’d see. “You’ve been asleep for most of the day. Jade and Azul were really worried.”
His throat hurt like hell, but he asked anyway, a smile taking its place on his face, “Were you worried about me?” Riddle isn’t looking at him. Why not? He wants Riddle to look at him.
There’s a moment of silence that feels more suffocating than the flowers that have been clogging his throat.
“...I was.” Riddle lets out a shaky breath, “I am.”
He finally looks at Floyd, but a small part of him almost wishes he hadn’t. There are unshed tears in the redhead’s eyes, and he’s never seen him so upset. Not like this. The look on his face hurts him, but Floyd still can’t help but think he looks as gorgeous as ever. He feels himself choke on a petal.
Riddle moves to help him sit up, back against the headboard, and passes him a glass of water. Once he realizes how shaky his hands are, he takes it upon himself to press the glass against his lips and help him drink.
Once he places the glass back down, he asks, “You haven’t confessed. Have you?”
It’s not really a question. He hums in response. Riddle is smart, he already knows the answer.
“Why haven’t you? You might have a chance to get through this if you just stopped being so stubborn!”
Floyd felt nauseous in a way that the flowers had nothing to do with. Riddle didn’t pester him for the most part about confessing, knowing how it seemed to put him in a bad mood. He was considerate like that. Why? He didn’t know. But now he wasn’t sure if he could avoid it. Not when he was literally on his deathbed. He looked to the side, silently wishing there was any other way out of this.
“ Floyd.” It took a lot to not look back at Riddle. He was sure he’d say it if he did. “ Please just tell me who it is. Can’t you do that much?”
“...No.”
“Why not? Who could it possibly be that you wouldn’t want me to know? Even now? When you’re in the last stages of it?!” He couldn’t. He really couldn’t.. Because he wanted Riddle at his side until the end. He was too scared to admit it, if it meant jeopardizing that. “Floyd, won’t you at least look at me?”
Floyd must have been an idiot. He had to have been, because with the way Riddle spoke- he didn’t even think to deny him that. Quiet and pleading… Riddle never speaks like that. And Floyd was weak, as weak as he was stupid.
And he must have been the most stupid man alive, because Riddle was crying. There were tears on his face.He made him cry. He tried to reach out to him, but his arm gave up halfway through. Riddle surprised him by grabbing his hand, holding it just as gently as he did before.
“It’s you.” He didn’t realize what he’d said until he saw the redhead’s eyes widen in shock. “It’s always been you.”
“You… You’re serious?”
A nod.
He could feel the grip on his hand tighten. “You… You absolute idiot.” Floyd’s chest felt more clogged than it already was, if that was somehow even possible.
He leaned over, putting his head on the bed, next to the eel’s thigh. He let out a deep sigh into the mattress. When he turned his head to look at the eel, he was that shade of pink that made Floyd’s heart skip a few beats. “I like you too.”