It was only a matter of time.
A single flower petal in the bathroom sink. She bent over the basin panting. She could already feel it whispering in her chest.
Her lover rushed her to the hospital, as though there was anything they could do - her lover was a doctor, she knew the prognosis. She never let go of her hand all the way there.
Finally, the emergency room doctor came over on his rounds. "And your soulmate?" he asked, but he knew the answer.
"He's no soulmate of mine!" She spat out a petal.
"You know that's the only way. It's not natural for soulmates to be apart."
"You don't know what he did-" her lover leaped to her defense, but she shook her head, and her lover fell silent.
"I'm sorry, it's the only way." The doctor left.
She clenched her fists, but her lover refused to let go.
"It doesn't make sense," her lover muttered. "There has to be another way."
It was only a matter of time.
She coughed out bouquets of flowers in the night, her lover holding her close all the while. It got harder and harder to breathe, until even walking around was too much.
Her lover wheeled her into the doctor's office after hours. All was dark as they went quickly and quietly down the hall. There was no reason for further tests. Her prognosis was inevitable.
Her lover silently unlocked the door and let them into the scanner room. It was illuminated only by the dim emergency lights that were always on, and they didn't dare turn on any more.
Her lover helped her out of the chair and onto the long, narrow bed that slid into the cavernous core of the scanner. In the control room, her lover waited for each coughing fit to subside and took as many pictures as she could of her beloved's body and the growth constricting it from inside out.
At last her lover emerged from the control room and helped her out of the narrow cavern of the scanner and back into her chair.
"It's not natural, someone put that there and triggered it to grow, and we have the evidence to prove it." Her lover held up a thin data stick that gleamed in the dim light.
Writer's Month - word: comfort | setting: soulmate AU
AUgust - Hanahaki Disease