#the silk ribbon around the pot UR PRACTICALLY RIPPING MY HEART INTO SHREDS

[ahuiahoe]

— ✧ 00:00 — h. joshua x reader

an alternate ending to isohel

description. your time with each other is up, but still, you learn to live.

✘ genre. angst ✘ w/c. 850+ ✘ a/n. have been feeling out of practice and decided 2 share an alternate ending for isohel 4 some fun ^^ not sure how much sense this will make if u haven't already read isohel since this takes place after the major events of the story, so i highly recommend reading that first!

One year since he's heard your voice yet Joshua still hears you in the walls of the castle. When he opens the door to his study, your soft footsteps and quiet breaths melt into the background.

It calms him down more often than not, but sometimes it makes him cry. He dreams that you'll wipe his tears just as you did hundreds of nights before, but Joshua knows in his bones that he'll just have to pick himself up this time.

Some nights you cry too. You hold that silk ribbon to your nose and you imagine that Joshua is right there, right in the palm of your hand. You know he’s not, and you know he never will be—not again.

...

Three years since you’ve looked Joshua in the eye and finally, you’re graduating. A grand occasion for the kingdom given Hong University is meant for the finest of students; Joshua is sent to give a speech to the graduating class.

He stands on the same stage that you walked down a mere hour ago, looking down upon the rows of students. You sit among them, wondering if he can see you.

Joshua wonders too. Amidst the identical caps and gowns, he searches for your face, your eyes, your smile.

When he finds you, it feels like time itself freezes.

There’s a tug at his heart when your eyes finally meet. A wind brushes over him and Joshua imagines that it is the ghost of your lips on his skin instead.

Your heart aches too, but then there’s a revel of cheers and everyone is throwing their caps into the air and of course, you do the same.

Joshua loses your smile in the scene, and for a moment he wants to sob. He wants to let his knees buckle and fall to the ground, heaving in heavy breaths as thick tears pool in his lash line.

He looks up into the sky, and it’s painted with purple caps, and through the dots peaks the light of the sun.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Joshua knows that you’re looking at the same sun, and the thought makes him smile.

...

Five years since you’ve spoken to each other and Joshua’s chest no longer aches. He’s King now, if that ever meant anything to him in the first place, but as he works through the title, he realizes that things aren’t too bad.

Some days Joshua walks through Sol Invictus. He glances over Helios’ pegasi, and for a gracing moment, he thinks you would have loved them.

Joshua misses you like one misses the sun on a cloudy day. You're always there, always hidden behind something, but he knows. He knows you're always there.

You own a plant shop now, and you love it.

Some days you simply walk through the rows of greenery and color, breathing in the crisp air of dawn and dew. You look at the hyacinth that sits on your little head table, the silk ribbon that was gifted to you years ago tied around the pot, and you smile.

Smiling is easier now.

...

Ten years since you’ve set foot in the castle and some days you think of each other, some days you don't, but no matter what, you don’t forget. You two can’t ever forget.

You hear Joshua’s laugh. Not often, but sometimes you can catch hold of the beautiful sound when you walk to work some mornings. It makes your heart swell.

Joshua still hears you. He hears your voice in Sol Invictus on those cool mornings when he walks past the rows of hyacinths. The breeze whistles through the petals and stems, and he hears you amidst the sound. It’s comforting now.

...

Fifteen years and you’re married now. Jeonghan loves you, and you love him. He helps run your shop and take care of the hyacinths in the home you share.

You live in a small house in the middle of the city, no longer teetering at the edge of the kingdom like you once did. You've got a garden in the back and pretty flowers and shrubbery that decorate the front, and sitting in the center of the yard is a little pond Jeonghan helped you dig up yourself.

Of course, it isn't as grand as the one in Sol Invictus but still, you think Joshua would love to know that Eridenus has a twin.

Joshua too has a Queen of his own; she’s kind and smart and all things fitting for a woman. She makes him smile and for Joshua, that is more than enough.

Of course he thinks of you. How could he not when your scent still lingers in the paths of Sol Invictus? Still, it’s different now. A good different.

...

Twenty years and all is well. When you look up at the sun, you both know the other is doing just the same.

...

i miss the way you almost held the tide but still, it's nice dreaming that you're somewhere feeling the same heat that i did no fear, no fall if invisible lines lead your way back to me still, i got nothing

(isohel / eden)

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