11 for the heartbreaking prompt list with Dimashe? I want to see some sad boys
(made them as sad as possible so you better cry or else it wasn’t worth the pain I experienced (I’m only half kidding). takes place after a Verdant Wind ending but I don’t think there’s anything spoilery?)
11. “I know exactly how this ends.”
The bedroom smelled like snow. It wasn’t cold-- in fact, Ashe felt quite comfortable in his soft blankets. But it was that pervasive scent of freshly fallen snow that was stopping him from relaxing fully.
Light filtered through thin curtains and bathed the room in a gentle glow. The sun had yet to rise in earnest. Ashe could linger a few more minutes; held in strong arms against a warm chest. Protected. Loved.
“Good morning,” Dimitri muttered, pressing a kiss just above Ashe’s ear.
“Not yet.” Ashe turned to bury his head in Dimitri’s chest, listening to the soothing beat of his heart. “Please, not yet.”
Dimitri chuckled with his whole body. He held Ashe ever closer, tucking Ashe’s head under his chin. “Whatever is the matter, Beloved? It’s just morning.”
“I know exactly how this ends.”
The chuckling stopped.
Ashe reluctantly pulled his head away. While Ashe was marked with new scars and longer hair, Dimitri still looked just like he had two years ago. Only this Dimitri was cleaner; his eyes-- both of them-- were clear and sane. There was no spear through his neck or blood dripping from his mouth, there was no sodden fur cloak around his shoulders and no Relic falling from his limp fingers.
This Dimitri was alive and well. He was also not real.
“When I wake up-- when I really wake up, you’ll disappear,” Ashe said, feeling tears pool in his eyes. “You can’t keep doing this, Dimitri. You can’t keep visiting me. It makes every morning torture.”
Dimitri frowned. “I... I do not mean to torture you. Oh, Ashe...”
For Ashe had pressed his face into Dimitri again as the tears began to escape. The sigh that stirred his hair wasn’t real but the heartbreak stabbing him was. Dimitri ran his hand down Ashe’s back repeatedly, shushing him softly. “Ashe, please believe me. I never mean to hurt you. This is not punishment for siding with Claude in the war.”
Of course Dimitri knew of that fear without Ashe having to voice it. Ashe sniffed and pressed a kiss right above Dimitri’s heart. “I-I know. But that doesn’t change how this feels. It doesn’t change the fact that none of this is real.”
Dimitri put a hand to Ashe’s cheek, urging him to look up. Ashe’s lips were wet with tears but Dimitri still lean down to kiss him gently. “My love for you is real,” Dimitri whispered, lips brushing Ashe’s as he spoke. “If I hadn’t been so foolish at Gronder, the rest of this could be too. But that is my regret, not yours.”
Ashe kissed him again. Slowly. Trying to lose himself in this dream and all it had to offer.
“Ashe,” Dimitri began as he pulled away. Sea blue eyes started into Ashe. “Do you truly wish to never see me again? I would stay away, if that is what you wanted.”
It would be for the best. Without Dimitri in his bed, in his dreams every night, Ashe could move on. He could greet every morning without heartbreak. He could commit fully to the work he was doing for Claude instead of day-dreaming about a life that was never going to happen.
“No,” Ashe said at last. “Not yet. I... I will see you tonight.”
“That you will, Beloved. That you will.”
The bedroom did not smell like snow when Ashe woke up. But there were tears on his pillow. And the other side of his bed was empty.
(send me a heart-breaking dialogue prompt! mind the tags!)
