𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: everyone was back in the village, except for garroth. his absence haunts you everywhere except for in your dreams.
𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: angst, reuniting, hurt/comfort, love confessions
𝐂𝐖: none? mentions of garroth's injuries
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it's been a week.
a week since you and everyone escaped the irene dimension.
everyone but garroth.
you remember the look he gave you. the guilt, the resolve, the anguish. guilt for being weak enough to succumb to the mind control and manipulation that put you all in this jeopardizing situation. resolve to amend his mistakes by condemning himself to stay in this hell falsely veiled as heaven. anguish that he couldn't properly say goodbye. it was only seconds after the portal opened that laurance was carrying you through kicking and screaming for another way that it had closed once again.
you'd begged zoey to open it again, both of you barely able to stand on your own with your energy drained and spirits depleted. but you knew it couldn't be done.
now, seven days later, you lay in your bed, staring at the dilapidated and dark ceiling above you. not that you had any room to complain. your house was nothing but shambles after fifteen years, so the fact that levin even provided you with any sort of housing for free was generous. it seems providing you with your own bed was useless, though, when you couldn't even sleep in it. it by no means was because you were energized–you were in fact exhausted beyond belief. rather it was because every time you closed your eyes, your mind kept replaying that moment.
over and over and over and over again.
you're not sure when you managed to finally fall asleep, but when you open your eyes again under a large tree instead of a cracked wooden ceiling, it takes only a moment to realize you haven't truly woken yet. everything about it was so vivid, though. you could hear the leaves in the tree ahead rustle in the breeze,. feel the soft grass beneath your fingertips. smell the sweet scent of the flowers that bloomed from the ground. everything else beyond the hill this singular tree was on dissipated into a strange haze you couldn't make out, like when exhaustion blends your peripheral vision with the regular into a strange blur.
lifting yourself up to stand, you take a look around at the peaceful scene when a soft groan of pain sounds from behind you. when you turn back to the tree, you nearly jolt yourself awake into your physical body at the sight of the man leaning against it.
him.
it was him.
that pale golden hair, the usual soft waves mussed and sticking to his forehead. his face was pale and a large cut marred the skin near his jaw, his eyebrows pulled together and eyes shut from pain. slowly his eyelids crack open when his ears seem to catch your gasp, blue irises meeting yours a moment later. you can't hear anything but your own hitched breaths for the few moments you both stare at the other, watching as the head guard's eyes haze over in a vulnerable emotion you hadn't seen from him before.
the sudden clinking of his armor barely alerts you that he's moving before he's suddenly right in front of you, large hands grasping onto you desperately and pulling you into his chest. shaky breaths brushed against your hair and over your skin, rough gloves squeezing your skin like he was sure you'd dissipate in front of his eyes if he loosened his grip any further. he pulls back, and you only briefly see the beautiful shade of deep cerulean in his eyes before his gloved hands slide up from your arms to the sides of your face and his lips clash against yours.
it feels so real. his cool armor against your skin and the firm grip of his hand on the back of your head as he tilts your head back to mold his slightly chapped lips with yours. it's desperate, the way his fingers thread through your hair–it's like he was hoping he could pull you closer than you already were.
he doesn't pull away until you both have no more air left in your lungs, and with incredible reluctance he barely pulls back, your lips brushing against his.
"i wish you were real." he rasps, pressing his forehead against you with a groan. "if only you were real."
your eyebrows pinch together. you'd say the same, but you've never had a dream where the other people in it were aware. and this all felt so vivid.
was it possible to be brought together with the one you love in your dreams?
you want to speak, say something, but you're too overwhelmed by it all to do anything but whisper out his name.
"if i've died and this is my afterlife, i'd gladly spend the rest of eternity here." he pulls away, rough thumbs brushing against your cheeks as his eyes dart across your face—committing every curve and detail to his memory. "maybe this is my mind's last way of giving me peace before i'm killed."
"what?" your eyes widen at the ramblings coming from the reserved guard's lips. "garroth... is this—?"
"i love you. even if this is a delusion, at least i can feel like i told you once before i'm gone." he gulps back a lump in his throat, eyes misted over. "i love you so much it hurts. i'm so sorry i've let you down. the fact i was so weak to ever risk your life like that is enough for me to realize this is the fate i deserve."
you begin shaking your head, breaths short and quick.
it is him. somehow. someway. this was real.
"garroth. i don't know where we are or how this is happening, but you can't die. please promise me you'll live until we can find a way to get you."
his lips pull tight in confusion before shakily murmuring your name.
emotions bubble forward from your chest, crowding your throat as tears involuntarily pool in your eyes. "if somehow this is real, please don't give up. you can apologize when we reunite. don't let zane win this way."
"i... i won't, but how..."
"i love you, garroth."
"i love you." he says through a pained exhale, like the words were coming out of his last breath before his lungs collapsed in grief. "i promise you i'll come back to you. i swear it to you."
his fingers brush away the teardrops from under your eyes as a quiet cry leaves your lips, his expression pained. it was like each of your tears were a stab wound into his chest, your trembling lips a twist in the handle. the peaceful silence of the dream is interrupted by the loud ringing of what sounded like church bells in the distance. it echoed and shook the air around you, sending everything into a white haze.
no, were you waking up?
"please don't give up." you repeat, somehow unable to find any other words despite having so little time left. "i love you."
you hear another hoarse "i love you" from his lips, before his features fade away into a blindingly white haze and then disappear into the darkness. the next moment you're back in phoenix drop, staring up at the warped ceiling. the only thing reassuring you from letting the empty pit in your chest from swallowing you whole was his voice, the deep timbre still ringing in your head.
"i'll come back to you"
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