Azure Blossoms [SMG34 Hanahaki AU]

city lights

POV: Following SMG3 & 4's thoughts

Shit! "H-hey, uh, guys!" Three said, horribly overthinking the way he would say each syllable and making it sound awkward. "So...um, soup! Haha." The Meme Guardian chuckled weakly, worrying about a million things that could go wrong right now.

Tari carefully held the COMICALLY LARGE BOWL OF SOUP that could SPILL AT ANY TIME(!!!) as she responded. "SMG4 heard that you were sick and forgot to eat lunch and dinner so we decided to come over and give you some!" she said cheerfully.

Here, have a drawing :D

"Thanks, guys," SMG3 said, breathing a huge sigh of relief when Tari finally set the bowl down on a flat surface (a table). "But I'm not sure i-if you should be here. What if I'm contagious? I'm pretty sick right now..."

Four wasn't totally convinced. "But...you livestreamed for hours without even showing a single symptom once. Well, uh, until the end, but you don't look sick at all..."

"Well, I am!" Three snapped. "...sorry. I'll eat the damn soup. Or drink it. Thank you..." He got them some bowls and the trio sat down at one of the tables to have dinner. "What kind of soup is it?"

"It's soup-flavored soup," said SMG4. They began to talk about little things like Four's next video, Tari's high scores, and the latest dumbfuckery from Mario. Of course, the topic of SMG3's sickness came up again though.

"Look," he said, "I promise I'm fine. It's not like I'm..." he paused. It's not like I'm dying or anything. He wanted to say it, but he couldn't. "It's...not like I'm...horribly sick or anything. It gets better and worse at different times." This was technically true, his Hanahaki disease only came up sometimes and he really wasn't terribly sick. Yet.

SMG4 smiled. "Well, I'm glad you're not feeling really awful, at least right now. So, uh, do we leave?" Four wasn't really too sure about how to end this social interaction.

"If you want," Three said, "But I'm up for anything. Do you have anything to do right now? I was gonna go to the, uh, city."

Four's eyes lit up. "You don't go out that much, huh.. Sure, I'll come with you! How about you, Tari?" he asked the Meta Runner.

"Ah...no, I'm all right! I promised Mario I would play Super Smash Bros with him soon, so I'll be going," she said, starting to walk away. Then she came back. "I, um, forgot I can't leave..."

"Sorry about that," SMG4 said, about to use Plot Convenience magic, but before he could summon a portal, Three took his hand and used the more reliable Meme Energy to make one. "There you go," the purple-clad Meme Guardian snickered as Tari fell through the portal that popped up below her. 

"SMG3!" Four exclaimed.

"Oh, it's fine! She's fine, that portal led to the castle. Now let's get going or whatever." Three snapped his fingers for dramatic effect, which didn't work because he didn't actually know how to snap his fingers, and the duo were dropped through a portal to the city.

"GAH! Th-that's always...kinda sudden." Four shook his head to get rid of the minor nausea that always came with teleporting and looked around. They were in one of the quieter areas, the park. The sun was starting to go down, and all the city lights were slowly flickering to life. It looked so alive, all the lit-up windows and flashing neon signs and car lights and sunset. Three often found bright lights and people to be annoying and loud in his mind but not right now. Now it was that perfect time of day/night when it was perfect.

"SMG3? Can you, u-uh..." Four trailed off, his voice becoming high and faint at the end of his request. "A-actually, never mind! Where should we go first?"

Can you, uh, let go of my hand now? is what Four was thinking. But maybe for some reason, he didn't want to this time. Why? Why, though? Every time we did this before now, I hated it, or it was in a life-or-death situation.

I don't know, but... I'ma just go with it for now. Figure this all out later. :/

Three pointed to the nearest sidewalk. "There. We'll go wherever we end up, I guess. Maybe buy something, I dunno really."

The pair started walking, where they resumed their conversation from earlier without Tari this time. 

"Hey, remember that one time when we tried to kill each other?" SMG4 asked. Three laughed. "Which time? Ha, I remember when I was like...more evil. Those were fun times, but I've gotta say that being a hero or whatever crap is a lot better now that I've been on the other side."

Four smiled at SMG3, his sky blue eyes meeting Three's ruby red ones. 

The purple-clad Meme Guardian was lost in thought. God, he's so adorable. It's too bad I'm gonna die in who knows how long, he thought to himself. Four would never love someone like me.

"Uh, dude? You're staring," said SMG4.

Shit! "Sorry!" Three exclaimed, jumping a little and also letting go of Four's hand. Hey, wait a minute, we were still...! Holy fuck this was embarrassing. HOW LONG WERE WE HOLDING HANDS??? He knew he was definitely blushing.

"It's okay," SMG4 said, and then in a much quieter voice, he mumbled, "I...didn't mind it."

SMG3 couldn't hear him though. Three could only hear his own thoughts, his own, panicking thoughts as he had the looming feeling of terror that always came...

...It was here. It always came before his Hanahaki would start up again. He had to get back home, and fast...

Before Four sees, he thought to himself, barely able to hear anything in reality anymore at this point...