A/N: This might read a bit odd but i'm sleep deprived.

“For all eternity?” He asked with a smile on his face, hand out stretched for Jeonghan to hold.

Intertwining their fingers, Jeonghan nodded. “Forever and ever. Death will not part us.”

Joshua watched, a bit mesmerized by the blood that spilled from their hands to the bowl, splashing over the rings.

Looking up Jeonghan flashed him a smile as they felt the tell tale hum of magic. A flash spread through the room and then it dissipated. Left in the bowl were the rings; they were lined with a thin red line, no doubt made by their combined blood.

Jeonghan picked Joshua’s up, holding it a loft to read the inscription. “Shall the red thread lead you home.” He took Joshua’s left hand and slipped it on, giving it a kiss.

Joshua took Jeonghan’s ring and slid in Jeonghan’s ring finger, holding onto his hand tightly. He leaned over to kiss him.

“I’ll make sure to always find my way back to you,” he said with a cheesy grin.

Laughing Joshua released his hand. “And I you.”

Abruptly Joshua woke up, his hand feeling around his neck for a ring that no longer hung there. He let out a shaky breath as he moved, the blankets rustling. Breathing deeply, he ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. After all these lifetimes of breaking his end of the promise, Joshua still dreamt of it. Had nightmares of it more like.

He wrapped his arm around his legs. Wasn’t it enough to feel the pain of finding him over and over again in each and every lifetime only to not have him? Joshua, if he was lucky, had Jeonghan in half of them, the other half of the time Jeonghan had chosen other people that weren’t Joshua.

It was a similar cycle each and every time. Jeonghan fell in love with someone else; Joshua would be at the sidelines watching, having met him too late or nothing would change Jeonghan’s mind. And then there were the times Jeonghan went along with other people’s wishes, like his parents’ ideas of a good partner. Or other times Jeonghan decided that someone needed him more than Joshua did, leaving Joshua with nothing but a broken heart and a promise made upon blood to find each other once again in another lifetime.

Joshua confessed his love some lifetimes if he thought he was sure Jeonghan would say yes back. But confess or not Joshua couldn’t say one hundred percent of the time that Jeonghan agreed and they’d be together once again. No. It was hit and miss. Like shooting a target half blind and hoping you’d shoot true.

If everything went well then it ended like it had in the beginning; the two of them together. But he wasn’t always successful. Joshua tired of being second choice, if he ever had the luck to be. He tired of being left behind, promise or not. They found their way back to each other. But if he were being truthful; Joshua went looking for Jeonghan not the other way around. Joshua chased that red thread back to home, but home. Home didn’t want him, no matter the form he had.

And what was worse was that only he seemed to remember the flashes of lifetimes before. The promise broken. The promise fulfilled. The beginning of the promise.

He stopped chasing. He after one too many lifetimes of a broken promise made another deal on blood. Only his this time.

Joshua ripped the ring from his neck, hard enough for it to bleed a bit. As the blood touch the ring he dropped it in his makeshift magic circle, once again invoking the same magic that had bonded their threads together.

“So, you come to me again. The lovers who wanted to be fated. Where is your love now?” They seemed to be laughing at Joshua, at his pain.

“Not mine. Not this lifetime.” Joshua yelled, “Not in so many lifetimes! We made the promise to be together only it seems to be worthless!” He took a shuddering breath, “I know you can’t undo it all. But you can undo a part of the promise. You can break the thread on my side.”

They laughed at him, this time out loud. The robed arm came up, palm facing upward. “What do you have to offer this time? You offered your heart and your memories, handing them over to me so you would remember forever. What do you have to offer now?”

Joshua felt his heart drop. No wonder he remembered everything. Almost everything. He had been the one to take the role of forever remembering. They had said that things might go awry but they would always find each other, as long as one remembered. And Joshua had been the one to agree to remember. What good did it do him now?

“What can I offer to you?” Joshua had magical talent but as the times went on and magic died out, gone underground, extinct almost with the technology. What use was it now?

They smirked. Even if Joshua couldn’t make it out clearly, he heard it in their voice. “You’re a mageling. Magic is dying. Keep it alive. In each lifetime keep it alive. Teach it. Spread it. Find others like you. If magic dies so we. The old, the fae, the otherworldly beings. That is my price.”

“And how will you know if I’m keeping it alive?”

They looked at him. “A binding. As the promise from before was binding, so this one would be too.”

Joshua picked up the ring, gripping it hard enough for it to dig into his skin. He held it up, dropping it on their hand. “So, let it be sworn.”

They smiled. “Cutting the thread on your end means you will no longer feel the pull to find him. And you no longer will know where he is. It means nothing on his end. He can still come find you.”

Joshua started to laugh. “He has never come to find me. He won’t bother. Jeonghan doesn’t feel the ache I do. He doesn’t see the dreams, the nightmares. He knows nothing. It won’t matter. I agree. Cut it.”

“The dreams and memories will not go away. There simply won’t be any new ones. But an offer is an offer.”

Joshua fell to his knees as he felt that tie around his heart snap. Gasping he looked up at them.

Smiling they said, “And it is done. The tie is severed. Shall he look it will be blurred. But pure instinct may lead him to you once again as it has done before this all.”

He shook his head. “Enough with the warnings. I’m an old man now. The next several lifetimes will be freeing.”

“But warn you I must. Severing it on your end doesn’t mean he can’t find you. If he tried hard enough he would.” They gave him a benevolent smile. “I’m simply being nice by giving you my warnings. A bond like this even if cut won’t mean it will die Joshua Hong.”

“It’s as good as dead.”

“So, you say. Good luck on the next lifetimes. I look forward to seeing magic again.” They disappeared.

Joshua fell onto the floor once again. Old age was getting to him. By the feel of things, he’d be dead soon. He gasped.

“Grandpa! Oh my god! Grandpa! Michael! Call 911! Grandpa’s having a heart attack!”

Joshua chuckled. Soon he’d be able to start anew. No more waiting on Jeonghan. No more heartbreak. No more postponing his life for someone who didn’t want him. A promise broken. Finally.