Work Text:
Mapicc was in love with Zam.
Whenever he thought of her, he would feel a warmth in his chest, so strong it was like the sun itself descended upon him each time. She was a beacon of hope, a beacon of joy, a beacon of comfort.
At least, until the day she got a new boyfriend.
He's nothing like Mapicc, he had concluded. The way Zam talked about him made certain of it.
"He's so sweet." Zam sighed, leaning against the wall with a smitten smile upon her lips. "He looks scary, but he's really just a big old teddy bear!"
It made Mapicc sick. And he had the unfortunate opportunity to meet the man when his office had a holiday party.
"Mapicc, this is Flame, my boyfriend!" Zam squealed, and it made Mapicc's stomach churn from how giddy she sounded.
"Flame, this is Mapicc, my best friend!" Mapicc grimaced, forcing it down with a strained smile as he offered his hand to the man.
"Pleasure to meet you!" Flame grinned, taking Mapicc's hand with a strength he didn't even know was possible.
"Yeah." Mapicc wheezed out, massaging his hand once he was free from the worst handshake Mapicc had ever had. Not because it was a lousy one, just because it was with a man he utterly despised the existence of.
The warmth in Mapicc's chest began to burn with a passion he was unfamiliar with. It happened fast, like a strike of lightning into a dead forest, burning his insides until there was nothing but the pain and ache of his heart.
A few days after the party, a petal fell from his lips.
Mapicc stood before the mirror of the employee's bathroom, gripping the sink while his eyes struggled to focus on the mangled ball of flower petals and blood. He could barely make them out, what was once bright yellow petals were now coated in thick crimson stains.
Mapicc tried to distance himself from Zam. He truly did. But the pain of losing her was too much, and she always found her way back into his heart, ripping it open and stomping whenever she dared to speak of her man's name.
Months would pass. Mapicc would cough up more petals, watching as they morphed colors and warped with the blood that he shed. His lungs would struggle to inflate, the longer the days dragged on the tighter the flower stems became.
A year would pass.
"We're getting married!" Zam grabbed Mapicc's hands, ones that had grown blue and shaky over these long and grueling months.
What?
"What?" Mapicc blinked. The room began to spin, slow as Zam repeated what she said. Her words warbled and distorted as the realization came crashing down upon him.
Zam was getting married to a man that wasn't him.
"Hey, are you okay?" Zam asked, squeezing Mapicc's hands to try and ground him back to reality. He blinked slowly, trying to swallow the lump that had grown in his throat. It didn't work.
"Yeah— Yeah I'm fine—" Mapicc struggled to suppress a cough, tasting the familiar iron on his tongue. "Excuse me."
Mapicc ran. He ran to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him as blood spewed from his lips. Various petals splattered onto the walls, lazily fluttering down as Mapicc began to choke.
Vines and stems knotted together, pushing out from his heart, winding around bone and tissue, forcing its way out through his mouth. Flowers bloomed from his body, the burning bush fraxinella, the suns of yellow narcissus, the deceptive pheasant's eye, and violet and red saffron. He watched in horror as they burst from his skin, wrapping around his body, yanking him to the floor as his blood was fuel for these parasites on his body.
Mapicc tried to scream, but his throat spasm-ed around the vines that poured from his mouth, and his lungs were filling with roots he could not get rid of.
Mapicc lay on the bathroom floor, watching as his body was taken over, a single sunflower ripping its way out of his heart.