ONE SHOT - LOKIxREADER

Sometimes Goodbye's the Only Way

Time: TWT
Location: Earth, Sanctum Sanctorum & a cliff over the ocean
OST: Placebo, Beautiful James
Words count: ~ 3000
Published: 9 April 2021

Warning:
Sadness, melancholy

***

Everybody lies one hundred times a day
The silence in your hard eyes
Is far too rare to give away
And it's exactly why I stay

***

Springtime had finally bloomed in the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village, with its wonderful display of small, delicate pink cherry blossoms. The sturdy cherry trees that stand upright along Bleecker Street bloomed their beauty, their branches covered with a layer of soft colors.

That was a marvelous show you never got tired of.

Sad it was those enchanting bits of pure magic were destined to last only two weeks and then drop to the ground and wither, falling like snow with the ebb and flow of the winds. That lavish spectacle is always remarkably brief, you thought to yourself.

Wasn't that the perfect metaphor for many things in life, after all? Such as Love that will eventually fall, this is the unchangeable fate of beautiful things. Good and short-lived, just like cherry blossoms.

For a long moment, you simply stood there, your gaze enraptured by the life flowing in the world outside the large circular window, your whole body absorbing the warm and bright light that came in from it and stretched the shadows of its four swooping lines over the polished wooden floor of the three-story townhouse's mansard.

You would have remained there, with the thousands of memories showing themselves to you and bringing you to many months in the past, if not for the swift movement that caught by your peripheral eye and the comforting, familiar weight fastening rapidly over your shoulders. If that was nothing uncommon, it had been the fluttering caress that stroked gently over your left cheekbone to eventually pull your mind back to reality.

"I know, my friend, I know this will be hard... But I have to go. I need to get the truth."

You gently pushed the hem of the enchanted blood-red cape away from your face and it seemed to get your moody mumbling because it settled obediently back in place at the sides of your neck and stood quiet. Despite the Cloak of Levitation having no voice to talk back, you could tell it knew you wished you could say that you got over it, that you were strong enough to handle it. But that would've been a lie.

Forcing your mind to pull out from the train of thoughts that had almost dragged you away, you took a determined breath in, turned swiftly from the window, and steeled yourself while slipping the golden double-ring over your fingers. That done, you rose your right hand in front of you and gestured in midair with the well-practiced round movement you'd learned many, many years before.

Casting that spell had never been such a difficult task. All you had to do was focus on the desired destination, was it either a place or a person or a moment in time. For your Master's greatest envy, that sort of connection had always felt natural and easy for you.

If not for the gloom that was making your heart weigh like a boulder, you would have smirked at the remembrance of your very first practical training session and his shocked expression in seeing your skills. May he and his proud, fallen fellows rest in peace.

The familiar fiery, sparkling white and golden light-based portal opened up in front of you, its round shape enlarging itself to size easily accommodating a human height. It took you another deep breath in to gather all your willingness and the last ounce of courage to make the first step into the portal, your leather boot landing firmly on the ground to the other side of it.