Dream of the endless x Reader

Ivy

How's one to know when you find the love of your life? Maybe you already met them, only once in a brief encounter, just one quick glance and you decided not to look twice. Maybe you will meet them when you are so old that your eyes cannot recognize that the person is meant to you. Maybe you will never meet them because your soulmate was born in another time, destined to walk the earth alone in a faith forgotten land. Or maybe you meet them, when you are already with someone else.

That is maybe the worst faith someone can encounter. And apparently that kind of faith was chosen for you a long time ago. You always knew that your fiancé was not meant for you. That you did not love him and that he did not love you. It was a match your parents had made ages ago and so it was not a single threat of gold woven by the Fates that tied you to him, but a handshake between your fathers, a contract that was established when you had only been a few month old.

And your fiancé Robert was not a bad match at all. And he was not a bad man, but he was not great either. He was smart and wealthy, every mothers dream, and he did not treat you bad. But he did not believe that woman were as intelligent as man, he already talked about you bearing his children and laughed and rolled his eyes patronizingly when you talked about reading books or travelling the world. And sometimes he would drink too much, he had a short temper and definitely had a certain reputation among the ladies.

So it was not love, but obligation that tied you to him, represented by the diamond ring on your finger. You did not like the ring. You always preferred gold over silver and you would have loved a sapphire or an emerald over the diamond. But you had no say in that and you had smiled and nodded and pretended to like the ring, when Roland proposed.

Your wedding was supposed to be in late spring. It was winter now and your mother said that only fools and the poor would have a wedding in the winter and that it was a bad time to start a marriage and a family. So for now you were free from your wifely duties, at least for a few more month. You did not see Roland often, he was away mostly for his business, so you were left with your parents at their big house, that was always too big and too empty.

It was gently snowing when you met him for the first time. The snow glistened as it fell and powdered the world in white. Only the pine trees had not bowed their will to the cold and were the only source of green in the forest near your parents' house. Of course you were forbidden to go there, it was improper for you to be out alone without a chaperone, but your parents were away and so you took the chance to feel some freedom and to smell the cold air.

He was the most handsome man you had ever seen. He was alone, bending down to something at the ground and it looked like he was talking to someone. He stood up straight and whirled around, when he heard your footsteps in the snow. He had brown tousled hair, his face was beautiful and he was dressed in dark garments.

For a second you were frozen in time. He was absolutely gorgeous and there was something about him that made your heart skip a beat and then beat faster, like it recognized him. You were so enamored that you missed the roots on the ground and tripped. You hit the ground hard and the snow was too cold against your hands and cheeks.

A pale hand was extended to you, as you looked up. The stranger was crouching in front of you, his blank stare turned into an expression of worry. "Are you alright, miss?", he wanted to know and his voice was so deep it seemed to vibrate in your very core. You nodded, blood rushing into your cheeks and turning them scarlet. It could have been from the embarrassment or maybe just from the cold. When your hands touched it was like his touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand. And when you looked into his eyes you knew. Who he was and that he was meant to be your lover, your soulmate, the king of your heart.

And it hurt so bad that you had met him when it was already too late. Maybe it was a hoax, plotted by the universe. Maybe you were never meant to find happiness. You tried to hide your feelings by placing a prefect, often practiced and well perfected coy smile on your face. "Thank you for the assist, sir. You are very kind". He just nodded sternly, but did not let go of your hand, your hand that was promised to another.