All flowers will bloom-Karina

epilogue

words: 1.3k

It was impossible to remember how to forget each and every face that you saw that night. Every time you blinked, you were reminded of Irene and her wide, colorful eyes. Every time you turned your head, you swore you could see your mother standing in the corner, just watching with that horrified look on her face that would never leave your mind. Every time you heard something, you swore it was Karina's soft gasp the moment she realized what you had done, and exactly what it meant.

Even when the juice had hurriedly been washed off of you by some dead, ever-curious nymphs, you could feel it on your face, sticky and red and dripping. You could feel the disgust of your mother while she stared at your red face, almost like she had seen you tear into flesh instead of fruit. You could see the coloring of it in fabric it had never even touched. You could see it dripping down and making stains like it was your own personal scarlet letter, unable to be hidden or removed.

Did you even want it removed?

It didn't bring shame. It brought the light of decision, one of your first real decisions that you ever made on your own. The dark red haunted your thoughts in ways that were good and bad, haunting and stirring. Part of you hated it. And part of you loved it.

You loved it because you knew you had made the right decision. You missed your mother greatly sometimes, but your heart was filled with another sort of love when you were without her. You had loved your mother and been graced by her divine presence and blessed by her and her maternal nature for years and years, like a flower under gentle warmth. But you had yet to even feel anything close to what Karina gave you before you met her. You couldn't ignore that. You missed your mother, but you would damn near die without Karina.

You hated it because you knew that you were never going to be able to feel that type of freedom again. Never would the ball be so clearly in your court again. Never again would the coin toss land just right for you. You would never be able to feel the rush of taking charge and choosing to do something right for yourself again. In a way it was the climax of your life, and according to all the Muses and mortals who did epic poetry and novels to be read by generations to come, you would expect smooth sailing from there.

But nothing was ever truly the smoothest of sailing. Not with Karina as a wife.

"You have everything, right?" Her hand was on your back, like she was actually guiding you through something although the two of you were just mindlessly strolling to the opening of the Underworld, a place you both got familiar with very quickly.

"I have it all," you insisted, shaking your head at her with a smile on your face. "You don't need to worry about me forgetting something, I'm not nine."

"But you also aren't going to come back for sixth months, flower."

"I know." And boy, did you know.

The original arrangement was stupid. You thought an arrangement at all was idiotic, and the fact that you had been forced to eat something just to see the love of your life was the dumbest part of all, but you still had to sit there while two goddesses with voices louder than Taeyong shouted at each other and played the blame game. The original arrangement was that your mother would come down and visit you.

That only lasted one long, excruciating visit. The plan was revised about three times before Steven had to come down from high and mighty Olympus to decree a soft law, one that was too strong to be broken yet too weak to completely encroach on either goddess's power. It was then you finally got a solid solution that was unable to be moved, changed, or altered; you would spend six months in each place. Six months above, and six months below. There was no negotiation.

Your mother was furious about it. She was so angry that she didn't speak to Taeyong for two cycles, which soon came to mean two full years. It was hardly seconds for them in the grand scheme of things, but it was still big. Within the first six months of you being gone, she vowed that during the time you were below with Karina, that nothing more than exactly what the people needed would grow. Even with that, she grew bitter and even less forgiving to the mortals who had nothing to do with the decree. Most crops died out within the six months you were gone.

But, she told the truth about them coming back, too. The second you touched back down to the earth you knew well, the yellow flowers reached for the sun, the starches came from the ground, and the flowers of the apple trees bloomed. Every year, it was like the welcoming gift of a lifetime. The scent of fresh plants and the taste of quickly ripened fruit made you smile bigger than ever. But it made you sick to think of the suffering that the mortals had to go through to get it.

That hellish yet cold and harsh months were called winter, and the calmer months intertwined with it were called fall, for the leaves that dropped in preparation of the colder months to come. And your months, the months you were with your mother and without your love, were called spring and summer.

You loved walking up above. It was still beautiful to you, and would forever be your home. But there was something so captivating about the eeriness of flowers growing below, and of the sound of fading footsteps and chills. There was something so special about the underworld. There was something about the sight of it that made you ache when you left it.

Maybe it had to do with your wedding happening there.

"I'll miss you," you heard Karina utter, her voice soft and sweet, even though she never had to say it, anyway. You could hear it with every breath she took, you could see it with every lingering glance, you could feel it with every fleeting touch that she gives you every second she thinks you're moving away from her.

Her soft touches were better than words themselves. You would never forget her vows. Not because she poured her heart out, or because every word dripped with the sweetest of honeys, but because they were silent. You had repeated the undead priest with cotton in your ears and your mind under water, but she said nothing. She just reached up to you and caressed your face, and her eyes spoke a million words, painted a thousand pictures, and explained how she had waited too many lifetimes. It was the most beautiful moment you had ever experienced. You knew there would never be one better.

"I'll miss you, too. You know I will." You said, giving her a look. You saw a certain vine crawling along the walls, and your heart momentarily dropped. You were almost there. "But you don't have to hover, I'll be fine."

"Is it wrong for me to worry about my queen while she's away?"

"I'll only be going to someone who hovers just as much as you do, if not more. I'm as safe above ground as I am here." And it was true. You were one of the most loved goddesses of all, and if you weren't liked, then your mother's status covered you well enough. And in Karina's realm? No one would even dare. Not again.

Karina's eyes rested on yours for a moment, like she was checking to see if it truly was all okay to you. What would she do if it wasn't? What could she do? "I'll miss you."

"You've said that," you said, chuckling a bit before wrapping your arms around her and letting your face bury into her neck, swaying back and forth while covering her, like the single petal of a peace lily in the wind. You sighed at the relief of being able to see one under the sky. "And you know I'll miss you more."

You would always miss her more.