ᴶᵉˢᵖᵉʳ ᶠᵃʰᵉʸ ᴵᵐᵃᵍⁱⁿᵉˢ

ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜰᴀʟʟ ᴡᴀꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜰᴇʟᴛ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ

Everyone who occupied a room in the Slat knew that Jesper would do anything for you. It was a common topic of debate between you and Nina.

You didn’t believe he’d do anything, whereas Nina certainly appeared to. Her belief in this subject seemed to rival that of Inej's for the Saints.

She constantly tried to convince you of it using points including: if you had a bad day, he’d go out of his way to make it better, if you rambled about a certain subject he would rest his elbow on the table and prop up his head on his hand and listen contentedly. Even when you had scratched his prized revolvers, he had simply told you he was willing to forgive and forget.

This was true, and you often found yourself questioning why you were still alive after ruining his most prized possession.

Jesper knew the answer. He had known for a while. Why his eyes always longed to connect to yours the second he entered a room. Why you were like a magnet for a certain sharpshooter.

If it were anyone, anyone else, he would have at least attacked them. Even if it were Kaz, the great and horrifying Bastard of the Barrel. He had realised why you were the exception and accepted it fully.

It was because Jesper Fahey had fallen in love with you. That fall was both abrupt and steady, fragile and robust, and for a while he had been terrified. Because that fall was like nothing he had ever felt before.

Your very presence made him unable to form coherent thoughts, and he stumbled over his words regularly.

But you knew nothing of his fall. Only of yours.

You had immediately tried to stop those thoughts. The ones where you pictured those tendrils of hair flopping over his forehead. The warm chocolate brown eyes that would focus on your own. Because after all, that fall was like nothing you had ever felt before.

Kaz was tired of the stares of longing, or as he would say, lovesick puppy eyes, and wanted the whole thing to be over with. No, he needed the whole thing to be over with. So, in classic business style, he scheduled an intervention.

Your most recent hobby was to knit and as you had just begun, your creations were extremely garish and had lots of dropped or completely missing stitches. Still, for you it was fun and therapeutic.

Kaz took advantage of this and told you to knit something for Jesper. You did and carried it out extremely carefully - it took you a week and many foul curses because of dropped stitches and running out of the exact shade of yarn but by the end, the scarf you had created was, in your opinion, quite decent.

Inej told you it was the most beautifully crafted scarf she had ever seen but since Inej generally had compliments lined up for anyone and everything, you weren’t sure if she was giving her honest opinion or being overly nice as usual.

You rocked on the balls of your feet with apprehension as you gave Jesper the finished navy blue scarf. He smiled and looked at you as if in conformation that it was for him. You bobbed your head slightly and gave a nervous smile.

“It is marvelous (Y/N)! I shall treasure it forever, truly.” He said as he swung his arm over your shoulders.

˜"*°•.˜"*°••°*"˜.•°*"˜

As the months passed, you became an experienced and excellent knitter. You could improvise your own patterns instead of following set ones and hardly ever dropped stitches. You could knit while listening to someone talking, watching something and still barely have to concentrate on the yarn as you wrapped it over and in-between and pushed it over to the alternative needle.

You had knitted something for almost all the Dregs by now, but the main receiver and object of your affections was Mr. Fahey himself.

One day Jesper made a move.

You were having a perfectly normal conversation when you paused as you saw his gaze fall upon your lips. Then he dipped his head and gently pressed his lips to yours.

As you pulled apart, he told you, “I never would have realised my feelings were reciprocated if you hadn’t given me so many things.”

You laughed in ecstasy and responded, “Oh, thank the Saints for knitting!”

And as you heard Jesper’s laugh, and he heard yours, you both fell again. You were completely and utterly besotted with Jesper and he with you.

And you were no longer scared, even if that fall, well…

Even if that fall was like nothing you had ever felt before.