It had started with a petal. Just one. A small red rose petal, covered in drool and bright against the white of his pillow and bedding the morning he woke to discover it.
Confused, Cisco Ramon picked it up, rubbing it between this fingers with a frown. He didn't have any flowers in his apartment, nor was he given or took any flowers yesterday from any location. So he dismissed it, he probably got it caught in his hair or on his clothes yesterday, so there's nothing to worry about.
By the time he gets to STAR Labs that morning, his throat feels like he's swallowing razor blades, but it's nothing a few painkillers can't fix and he manages to get through the day, a few fits of coughing here and there. He doesn't notice the flower petals till Barry points them out, confused.
"Hey-" Barry said as he through the door to Cisco's station where he's tinkering with Barry's earpieces for his suit (they were starting not to function correctly and almost left Barry deaf one time he went to fight), but he turned around to acknowledge his friend, the burning he'd felt earlier in his throat now having spread to his chest, him ignoring it so he could take off a glove and pull up his specs he was using to see the parts closer. "Something wrong?"
"Did Caitlin get flowers or something?" Barry reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bunch of bright white petals, several of them. "I've been finding these things everywhere, Jasmine." He clarified, blinking as Cisco shook his head.
"No, dude. I haven't seen Catilin get flowers in...forever." He shrugged, biting his lip as he looked between the flowers and Barry. "I don't know. Maybe they came off your suit or you? You do tend to acquire a lot of debris on your suit and clothes while running."
"Huh. I didn't think of that. Have to be more careful." Barry nodded, tucking them back into his pocket, a smile coming to his lips as he remembered in particular. "Don't want to have another bird having a heart attack in STAR Labs again."
Cisco groaned loudly at the memory of the bird, flying around in a state of panic and destroying everything in it's path as Barry, himself and Joe attempted to re-capture it. "Oh god, don't remind me. I still haven't gotten you back for that one." The laugh that came after suddenly turned into coughing and doubled over, hand over his mouth as he spasmed.
"Woah." Barry gently started to pat his back carefully till Cisco finally was able to breathe semi-normally, clearing his throat again as Barry spoke. "Are you okay?"
"Fine, yeah, thanks." Cisco nodded. "I think I just got a little bit too much screaming at the TV last night. I might be a nerd, but when it comes to baseball, no one can stop me."
Barry just laughed, shaking his head. "As long as you're okay, dude. I'd better go, Iris wants me to meet her for lunch." Iris, of course he had to go and meet Iris. He felt a flare of something that felt like actual jealousy suddenly make it's presence known before he backed it down. "I'll see you later, right?"
"You know it." Cisco nodded, turning back to go to his work as Barry whizzed out. Until he felt the softness and weight of something in his hand. Looking down, he opened his hand to reveal more jasmine petals, this some, some covered in red speckles.
Cisco made a noise of confusion, bringing them up to his face for a closer look, before he smelt the coppery scent of blood and his eyes went wide. The petals were covered in small amounts of blood, but...why? There aren't any flowers in STAR Labs from what he knows, like he had said to Barry, so may be they came from a crime scene? Or Barry's lab? Surely he would have noticed them if they did. He didn't know. Sighing, Cisco just scattered the damp white pieces of foliage into the bin, deciding to forget about it.
Till he can't.
One morning about 2 weeks later, Cisco feels like he can't breathe and his eyes snap open as he tries to get air into his lungs and failing, pushing himself up to a sitting position only to double over, a violent coughing fit overtaking him. By the time he's done, he has a taste in his mouth like he's been eating dirt, he's covered in a thin sheen of sweat and his bedroom floor in covered in bloody flower petals. They're a mixture this time, of white and pink and light blue, speckled in red, all stark and visible against the apartment's wooden floor.
The flowers aren't coming from Barry, they're coming from him. Inside of him. How?
No, that's impossible. Flowers don't grow inside of humans. It must be a trick, Cisco resides, but the fluttering in his chest makes him think otherwise. He's seen a lot of things aren't normal lately.
He's late to the lab from cleaning up the petals and is pretty much on edge the whole morning, only snapping out of it to show them to Barry when he asks what's bothering him. "Do you know what these are?"
Barry frowns at the change in subject, but nevertheless, drops it and takes the blood speckled fauna from Cisco's outstretched hand, looking at them closely before nodding. "They're forget-me-nots. Where did you find this? Usually they grow over the far side of the city."
"I went on a run and a bush with them on it hit me, left a couple of petals in my pocket." Cisco pulled off with a tight smile at Barry's curious eyebrow. "Hey, I run all the time. Just wanted to know if I was gonna be poisoned or anything."
Barry regards him with a look that says 'I don't believe you.' before the alarm goes off and a Metahuman is getting it's ass kicked by the Flash, Cisco assisting while trying to control the sudden coughing that's overtaking him, more petals finding their way out of his mouth and into his hand which is hovering above a waste paper basket conveniently under the desk next to him.
When Caitlin suggests he go get a drink of water from the bathroom in the lab once Barry comes back unscathed, Cisco begrudgingly agrees only to end up detouring to his computer.
Going to the search bar at the top of the screen, he types in 'flowers' 'coughing' and 'blood', shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of the words together before hitting enter to search. By the time he finds what he's looking for and clicks on the page, he regrets ever searching in the first place.
His symptoms match up to something called Hanahaki Disease and usually, when the internet says you have any kind of disease, it's either a joke or a dumb person entering their symptoms they should see a doctor for. Cisco is neither numb, nor seen a doctor (because, come on, what doctor would believe a 26 year old male saying that flowers were erupting from his mouth without considering him insane or on LSD?), but he has a feeling the internet might be right this time. Which scares him a lot.
He reads the page rather slowly once he finds the information part of it, grateful that and Caitlin and Barry aren't in the room to see his face turn pale.
"Hanahaki Disease, also known as 'Lung Flower Infection' is an illness born from one-sided or unrequited love, where the patient suddenly starts to cough up flowers and/or flower petals in a physical manifestation of their pining for semblance. The effects and duration of the disease typically last as long as much as 6 months, though in some cases, it can be shorter or longer, varying on severity and length. These have been separated into Stages I, II and III.
Symptoms for Stage I typically start out of the blue and can involve coughing, pain from the upper respiratory system including the lungs, trachea, mouth and jaw, deoxygenated/oxygen deprived lips (blue colored lips), swollen uvula, tonsils, adenoids and trachea, along with the feeling of one's throat and chest cavity burning, accompanied by a sharp feeling like swallowing razors or glass.
Over time, if left uncured or treated, the coughing becomes more painful and the patient experiences fits for longer periods of time, along with flower petals increasing in number sporadically and sometimes, appearing with small amounts of blood from the friction being experienced by the patient's lungs."
That sounded like him to a T. The pain, the coughing, the burning. They were, whoever they were, describing him. But the cause was unthinkable. Unrequited love? Sure, you would get a lot of heartache, but that was about it. Apparently, it was rather common over in Asia and had recently started to show up in other countries such as Europe, The Middle East and Africa.
To Cisco, it it helped that he wasn't alone, but it didn't help a lot as it begged the question, who could he be pining for so much, that he reproduced flowers in his lungs?
Caitlin? He and her had been best friends since he came to the Lab, but she was with Ronnie and he'd never really liked her that way, so she wasn't the best choice.
Hartley? It would come as a surprise to some that Cisco was bisexual, but his fling with Hartley had been mutual and short lasting till Hartley got kicked out of STAR Labs. he still wondered where the man was sometimes, but he knew he was better off without him.
Lisa? Lisa had been gone for months, probably skipping town to avoid the cops while her brother and his pyromaniac friend roamed throughout time and space.
Kendra? He had loved Kendra that way once, he guessed, but that had dimmed down now she'd gotten back together with Carter and flown off to god knows where. She made it clear she still loved him dearly, but Carter was still her soulmate. Damn him.
Laurel? No, he might have idolized the woman and her alter ego like a kid in a candy store, but he sure as hell didn't like her in that way.
Cisco tried to wrack his brain, to think of someone who he knew, that he could really, truly be in love with, but was coming up blank. Only when he turned to see one of the Flash's spare suits in the corner did it hit him like a ton of bricks. Barry. He was in love with Barry. Shit.
Cisco honestly felt like he was going to be sick. He knew Barry didn't love him, he'd known that for ages. He'd pinned after Iris for god knows how long, so he should be the one blowing chunks of flower petals into the atmosphere, not him! But he knew it was true that he love dihm. God, he'd loved Barry for about a year now and had accepted he had no chance, so why was this happening? To him of all people?
"The only cure is to have that love wanted to be reciprocated, or to somehow wipe away all one's memories of their beloved person.
The infection can optionally be removed through surgery if requested by a specialist, but the feelings the patient has for the person associated with the infection disappear along with it.
While the patient will still remember the person associated, they will not have any tangible feelings of love and/or affection and caring towards them."
Removing all feelings towards Barry and without a reason? Cisco couldn't do it. It wasn't that he was in love with Barry so much that the couldn't, at least, not yet, but he valued their friendship more than a lot of things he owned and didn't want to give that up.
So, he decided. Judging by the severity scale, he had about 4 months left before he wouldn't be able to properly function anymore.
He decided to make the most of them before he died.