One Shots

Jem Carstairs/Tessa Gray

"You're back."

"Yes."

"You're really back."

"Tessa.." He sighed amusedly. "I've been back for two days now. What's it going to take to convince you?"

"A lifetime." She smiled shyly, yet warmly at the same time, leaning lightly against Jem, a hand brushing his scarred cheeck. "So, no more being a silent brother?"

"No more." He promised with a brief, yet serious nod, lightening the two words with a kiss to her cheek, before whispering into her ear. "A lifetime sounds doable.." A hint of a smile graced her lips as fingertips touched and ten fingers intertwined with one another.

"I missed you." She murmured in reply, shifting, moving so that her head laid on his chest, so that she could hear each breath, each heartbeat. So she could know, and feel that Jem was real, and here, and hers. God had she missed him.

"Did you really miss me, or did you just miss having someone to love?" He questioned quietly, knowing that loneliness could make a person say and do things they didn't mean, and want things they normally wouldn't. Jem had never understood why she should care for him, of all people. He didn't know what made him special. Will? He understood why a girl could love his parabatai, but never himself.

"Miss having someone to love? Why would I miss it if I've always had someone to love." She replied, nonchalantly almost. "You might've been gone, but you've always been mine, Jem Carstairs."

"And I you, Tessa-..."

"Gray." She finished for him, knowing he knew not which last name to call her by. "I have given myself to you both freely Jem, and happily, make no mistake of that, but I need to be able to belong to myself as well." She spoke wisely, a deeper knowledge and understanding in her eyes now, more so than the old Tessa ever would've had.

The wisdom in her gaze almost surprised him, but he supposed he had changed as the years past as well. He had forgotten a lot of things. He would've forgotten how to love had he not kept on loving her all that time. But still..

"I love.. But I don't know if I remember how to love right, Tessa.. I'm back but not the same.. Neither are you." Jem began, moving to sit up when Tessa beat him to it, grabbing his hand as he did the same, pressing said hand to her chest, so he could feel her heartbeat now too.

"Feel that? That's all we need Jem. A heart, no matter in what condition, can always love, and no love is wrong love. Confused, or misguided maybe, but never wrong." She murmured, moving close, not for a passionate kiss or a lust filled action, but for a simple embrace, one full of pure desperation, and need, and content, that meant more than anything else could've.

She loved him.

He loved her.

And that would just have to be all they needed, because it was all either wanted, and would ever want as well.

"But what now..?"

"Now? Now we start living again." He supposed.

And as it has happened, countless times before, and will countless times again, two people in love, held hands and shared hearts as they ambled into the future together.