#could you imagine if everytime a bridgerton got into their chaotic love quests someone got hanahaki?

[sea-owl]

Ok so Penelope gets hanahaki. 

Let’s say this is post season two after Colin declares to the other gentlemen of the ton that he would never marry Penelope Featherington, and Penelope has her fight with Eloise. Just to sprinkle some extra heartbreak. 

It starts out as a cough. Penelope doesn’t think of it much first and associates it with the crying she’s been doing from the loss of her best friend and Colin’s public rejection of her. 

Slowly the cough began to take away small breaths from Penelope’s lungs. The doctors say she’s stressed and to rest. They say she’ll be better soon.  

A prickly feeling in Penelope’s stomach told her that it was just the beginning. 

It wasn’t until Penelope was visiting Romney Hall, months after the first cough, trying to right at least one of her wrongs, that she coughed up the first buds.

"You have hanahaki," Phillip informed her. "It's a rare, but fatal disease brought on by unrequited love and heartbreak. It starts out as a cough but then as time passes your lungs are filled with flowers, and you can no longer breathe."

Penelope could only stare down at the buds, still damp from the saliva that coated them.

Phillip recognized them as buttercups and carnations, both yellow.

Childish, rejection, and disappointment.

Penelope has never hated the color more.

"Is there any cure?" The red head asked. 

Phillip winced. 

“My lord, is there any cure?” Marina repeated the question. 

Phillip bit his lip but then eventually answers. “There is only three known cures. Have your love requited-”

Penelope shook her head. “Impossible. He proclaimed to the entire ton that he would never dream of courting me, not in his widest fantasies.”

“The other cures are to find a new love or have the roots surgically removed from your lungs. However, if successfully removed you will no longer feel love.”  

Penelope lets out a chocked laugh. “So, I die by either flowers or by the knife?” 

“You could find new love,” Marina suggested. 

Penelope doubted she could. “I have to find a husband this season.” 

Phillip had given Penelope leaves to make into tea that would slow down the disease. Penelope hoped it would by her the time she needed. She didn’t have high hopes though, and she needed to make sure everything was in order. 

She ignored the letters Colin sent during his travels, while she sent one after another Eloise. She didn’t want things to end the way they did. Eloise never answered a single one. 

Penelope’s success on the marriage mart was no better. Despite every attempt the only thing Penelope could show for her efforts were the whispers she got for Whistledown. 

Then Colin came home, and their lessons began. Penelope now had suitors, but she still coughed up the flowers, now coming up as full blooms with thorns on the stems. Zinnias, hyacinths, and chrysanthemums join the buttercups and carnations. All yellow with red blood painting the edges. Remembrance, jealousy, and slighted love. 

Whoever told Mama yellow was a happy color lied, Penelope thought as she hid the flowers. 

It pains her but she ends the column. Lady Whisteldown will die with her. 

Eloise storms into her room two days after she sends out her final column. “You ended Lady Whitseldown.”

Penelope nodded. She could feel a cough coming up, she refused to let anyone else see the flowers. 

“And now you’re going to let Cressida Cowper take the credit for it!”

“What-” Penelope was cut off by her coughs. Try as she might a few petals escape, along with a yellow petunia. Anger.

Eloise stared horrified. “What is that?”

Penelope gathers up the flowers. “I am dying Eloise. I have a disease that is slowly killing me, and the only cure is having me cut open to have them removed.” 

Eloise sits Penelope and they talk while Penelope drafts up one final column. 

He followed her. Colin Bridgerton followed her! Damn it! Now Penelope will never get this column out and all her hard work will be credited to Cressida Cowper. 

They fought about it in his carriage. Colin had ruined everything! Now Penelope will die with the person she hates the most will take another thing from her. 

Penelope loses her breath mid argument. A violent coughing fit overtakes her. The thorniest flower was crawling its way up Penelope’s throat. The floor of the carriage is littered with yellow flowers. Damn it, she forgot to drink her tea this morning. 

“Hanahaki,” Colin whispered. 

“You know of it?” 

Colin only watched the flowers. “What bloody idiot rejected you? Does he even know Penelope?”

“No, because he would never court me, much less marry me! He said so himself!” Penelope cried; she was so sick of this. She was tired, maybe this disease will hurry up to tonight if she doesn’t drink her tea when she gets home. “We’re not all lucky enough to be a Bridgerton and be gifted with a love match. Unlike you I am not meant to be loved.”

“I love you.” 

Before Penelope could question it, her breath is stolen in a whole new way. Colin captures her lips with his own. Her body going slack as he lays her against the bench. His hands trailing up her sides before finding the buttons on the back of her dress. He releases her lips, trailing kisses up her jaw before whispering in her ear.

“A kiss is meant for two you know.” 

“What?” Penelope asked dazed. 

One of Colin’s hands leaves Penelope’s back and takes her own hand. He squeezes her hand. “You are meant to be loved Penelope. I love you, and if I could steal your heart from that undeserving idiot so that you would love only me I would in a heartbeat.” 

“You love me?” Penelope whispered. 

Another coughing fit overtakes Penelope, worse than she has ever had before. The thorns coming up rip at her throat. Her chest is on fire, and she can’t breathe. Of course, right as her love might be requited the disease kills her. 

“Penelope!” Colin exclaimed as the red head hunched over on the floor of the carriage. 

Red, blue, and pink petals fall among the yellow flowers. Huh, Penelope hasn’t seen those before. 

Penelope gags and then vomits up a knotted mess of thorns and roots. Three flowers are attached, red primroses, blue forget me nots, and pink lotus flowers. 

Love. Remembrance. Rebirth

Penelope turns towards Colin. “I’m cured.” 

#man this loooong #sorry yall i'm on mobile #fun fact like other nods in their story i chose a lotus flower because of the odyssy #though the meaning in flower language vs the role in the odyssey are two different things #polin #penelope featherington #colin bridgerton #hanahaki disease #polin hanahaki #bridgerton #could you imagine if everytime a bridgerton got into their chaotic love quests someone got hanahaki? #that would happen to them