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"You"ve got to be kidding me."
"I"m afraid not." Nahida"s face is solemn, a strange expression on a deity who looks like a young girl. Hajime would find it funnier if not for the situation at hand. "This is definitely the Hanahaki Disease."
"So you"re saying I"m, what, in love with someone?"
"That"s a common misconception." Nahida starts putting away the medical equipment she had borrowed from the doctors at Bimarstan after Hajime had insisted on no doctors. "It"s unrequited feelings that fuel the symptoms, not love."
"Great." Hajime exhales, and it echoes loudly in his small room. He coughs up a few petals for good measure, and they flutter pathetically to the floor.
"At least you won"t die from it?" Nahida offers.
Hajime resists the urge to sigh again. "Thanks, Buer."
-
Hajime might not be able to die from Hanahaki, but sometimes it makes him want to.
It"s so annoying. There are flower petals clogging his throat as soon as he wakes up, forcing him to spend precious minutes of his time coughing them up and subsequently cleaning the floor. No, he doesn"t know why his bile, blood, and other bodily fluids are the same as they would be for a human and no, he doesn"t plan on asking. Working on his thesis is pretty much impossible, too. Approximately five minutes after sitting down at Puspa Café, notes spread out on the table and a steaming mug of black coffee in hand, he feels a familiar tickle at the back of his throat and resists the urge to groan. The worst part of it all, though, is that Hajime has no idea who he has "unrequited feelings" for.
It"s not Nahida. At the beginning of their companionship, Hajime was under the impression that she was looking down on him. The high and mighty god of Sumeru and the puppet she cut loose and made serve her, if you will. But that couldn"t have been further from the truth. As loathe as he is to admit it sometimes, Nahida truly cares for him, and Hajime feels the same. In contrast to The Shogun, who rules over Inazuma as the perfect creation that Hajime could never be, Nahida feels like a kindred spirit, a sister.
It could be the Traveler, maybe? But as soon as he thinks of it, he dismisses it. If anything, their friendship is more one-sided on her side; she"s always bugging him to join her adventure team and keeps trying to bribe him with snacks.
Before Irminsul, he would have guessed it was the Kaedehara boy the Traveler told him about, but the Irminsul erasure means that any feelings of hatred on Kaedehara"s side have disappeared, scattered to the winds. Unless the Traveler informed him of the truth behind the decimation of the Raiden Gokaden? She said she wouldn"t do that without Hajime"s go-ahead, though, and he"s inclined to believe her.
Hajime sighs into his mug as he brings the cup to his lips, taking care not to jostle the petals trapped further down his windpipe. Hopefully the steam will help clear his throat.
"Oh hey, it"s you!"
Hajime almost chokes, but just barely manages to swallow both the boiling coffee and the petals in the nick of time. He whips around to berate the idiot who interrupted his peace and quiet, and is met with-
Ah. That fool errand-boy, who he"d exchanged a few words with and promptly resolved to never run into again.
"Hat Guy, right?" Instead of noting Hajime"s glare (maybe the hat is in the way), he plops down next to Hajime, sitting way too close for comfort. "I"m Sethos! It"s nice to finally meet you!"
"I didn"t agree to do anything with you." Hajime seethes, scooting away from the errand-boy until his back is nearly up against the wall.
"Ah, but you haven"t left yet, have you!" Sethos" smile is disarming, and, horrifyingly enough, Hajime finds himself relaxing slightly. Back in the Fatui, this would have been a honeypot trap that would have ended up in a slit throat. Relaxing would have gotten him killed.
Wait, honeypot? Why is that where his mind goes with this mortal?
Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Sethos leans forward with his chin propped up by a hand, still grinning. "Anyway, I"d like us to be friends!"
"Why." Hajime, shocking even himself, doesn"t turn him down with an instant no.
Sethos gives an easy shrug. "I just think we"d get along, that"s all!"
"In case you"ve forgotten, I don"t even know you. We could have nothing in common."
"Becoming friends is about getting to know each other, no? And we have plenty of things in common! We both run errands," Sethos points out. "And we"re both new to Sumeru City. Oh! And we"re both gorgeous."
He is, Hajime thinks absently, before realizing the full extent of Sethos" words.
He"s not blushing. Probably. He"s not even sure if he can blush, due to the whole "being non-human" thing. "I know I am," he manages. "But you tell me if we have that in common."
Sethos grins at his reaction (or lack thereof) anyway, one of his canines slightly crooked. "You"re funny, Hat Guy!" Sethos hops out of the seat, and Hajime can"t explain why he suddenly feels a sense of loss. "I have to finish this delivery now, but I"ll find you again, mark my words! We"ll be friends before you know it!"
Sethos us out the door in an instant, leaving Hajime alone with his swirling thoughts. He sighs, and-
Wait.
There are no more petals in his throat.
He takes a deep, cautious breath and encounters no resistance. His next breath is shaky, burdened with the knowledge that because of this recent meeting, his Hanahaki has been cured.
Emotions, feelings, and all those innately human things don"t come easily to him, but whatever he felt towards Sethos has changed, and now-
Now his and Sethos" feelings are the same.