All flowers will bloom-Karina

five

words: 3.6k

You knew what a kiss was. Of course you knew what a kiss was, but there was something about what you and Karina shared that made it feel like much more than what you had seen. You had seen many people kiss before, humans and gods alike, and rarely did they ever seem half as entranced by the action as you were. To be frank, you could have sworn that your soul- if you even had one- was floating while she kissed you. And it was still sort of floating.

The thoughts of whether or not you had betrayed everything you had been told ever since you were alive were going strong. You betrayed your mother, your own mind, all of the other gods above who were wary of her. You, everyone's favorite young goddess, had done the unthinkable and kissed the Goddess of the Underworld. If they heard of what you had done, would they even want you back? You had purposely danced with death, put your lips on it, and if you were to be completely honest with yourself, fallen for it.

You wanted to hit yourself after that thought. She wasn't just death. It wasn't fair to call her that, even in the privacy of your head. It wasn't fair for them to see her that way, either, but that was the way that the world worked. She was powerful and dark and lived in a place where no one wanted to be, therefore, everyone naturally shied away from her. Most were more afraid than hateful, but of course your mother was the exception. And suddenly, you knew that everyone else wouldn't be a problem. Once they realized that she was actually very kind to you throughout your stay, they would take you back. But your mother would never accept that. She would call you weak in the mind, tell you that you were imagining acts and words of kindness that weren't really there. She would never grasp the fact that Karina could be kind.

Well, she wasn't being the nicest at the moment. Every time she saw you, she would turn right around and walk so far in the opposite direction that you couldn't even make out her blue hair. You would sometimes see her poke her head around the corner and then retreat so quickly that it scared you sometimes. If she got to your garden before you did, you would see her with her back to you, staring hardcore at your beds of flowers until she felt you coming, your energy no doubt tangling with hers. And then she would leave without a word.

At first, you let her be. You figured that she was having the same exact feelings you were- a lot of things rolled up together just for a singular, bold emotion to come up front: uncertainty. You knew that she felt the same way that you did. When you kissed, there was something that fell into place, something so pure and right that it was nearly impossible to ignore it. You know she felt it, and she knew you did, too. You knew she wasn't ignoring you because she didn't feel for you. She was ignoring you because she was scared. And so were you.

The garden was more than halfway done. You had gotten most of the plants strong enough to live without you, to the point where you weren't worried about them dying once you left. The soil was even stronger than the stems of your plants, supportive and ready to nurture. Every toxin that your mother put in the soil had been removed by you, and you had no doubt that if you worked day and night, that you could be released from the Underworld within a fortnight. Weeks ago, that would have been a glorious thought. It would have been everything you wanted to hear, your ticket to paradise. Now? It sounded almost like a death sentence. You didn't want to leave.

You wanted to see your mother. You wanted to feel her dote on you and you even wanted to hear her scold you. You wanted to see the nymphs. You wanted to see Taeyong and your plants above ground. You wanted to watch the humans fool around and talk worry about things that were nothing in the grand scheme of things. You couldn't do that from the Underworld. But you couldn't see Karina from above.

You knew that one you left, there was no going back. Your mother was going to have you on a leash so tight and short that she would never lose sight of the back of your head. She was probably going to demand that the cave and tree be demolished and that whatever portal sat under it be destroyed. She was going to make sure that you were miles away from Karina and her world at all times, maybe even make you stay on the mountain. She was going to tug you away by your arm, nails digging into your skin like you were a child all over again, and then that would be it. And all you would have left of the queen would be memories. And you would have to live with it.