Disclaimer: These characters belong to Libba Bray, not to me. The title of the fic, Together We Will Live Forever, comes from the movie The Fountain.
--
The first time he sees her, he thinks she looks feline, almost, with dark, intriguing eyes and sharp features. She scrutinizes him and he has the peculiar feeling that she can see straight into his mind.
Finally she stops, as if she has finished taking his measure. He wonders if he has been found satisfactory, then wonders why he cares.
It is like she knows this too, for she gives a smile. She extends her hand to him, and he takes it. She has an extremely strong handshake, he notices.
"I'm sure that we will work well together," she says.
--
The first time she kisses him, it's not a conscious decision. They are discussing the Order and the plans they are concocting to reenter the Realms and then suddenly she's kissing him though she doesn't know why and her hands are in his hair and their mouths crush each other as if this is the most important thing in the world.
They're hungry for each other, and she hasn't realized just how hungry until this moment when they're kissing and the world has become a little bit more vivid, the colors slightly brighter and the emotions so much more intense.
--
The first time they make love shortly follows the kissing. That element of hunger is still there, will always be there with them. It's unexplainable; it just is, much like the way things are beautiful and magical in the Realms.
Their bodies collide and connect, skin meeting skin. They both have had their fair share of experience, but this is different; another thing that they can't quite explain. They are loud, because they can't help themselves. This is more than desire; this is animalistic, almost. It's powerful and instinctual and beautiful.
The second time follows very shortly after the first.
--
The first time they end things is when she tells him, offhand, unguardedly, that the Realms will be perfect once everything is as it should be: the Order in charge, with no one else allowed any power.
He takes offense, and the argument escalates quickly after that, until finally he shouts at her if this is all just fun for her, using him for sex and nothing else, since obviously he doesn't matter as a person to her, before he storms out of her flat. She is too proud to apologize and he is too proud to ask her to.
--
The first time they reconcile occurs several months after the initial fight, when they meet each other by chance on the street. She nods coldly to him, and he acknowledges her in much the same fashion, neither of them looking at the other for long.
She waits for him in the park several streets away, and he finds her there, sitting on a bench.
"I won't say that I'm sorry," she says. Simply acknowledging that there is a possibility for apology is the closest she will ever come to regret.
"I know," he says, because he understands and accepts her.
--
The first time that he tells her about his past, he's shaking. No matter what he says, this hurts him, and she is sensitive enough not to press him, although she's always been curious.
So he tells her about living in fear of his mother and really in fear of everything, of how the Rakshana swooped into his life like a miracle and saved him, gave him a reason to keep living with promises of glory, honor and prestige.
A tear glistens on his cheek; he reaches out his hand to brush it away, but she has already done so.
--
The first time she thinks she might lose him is when he's on a mission for the Rakshana and he stays too long; it is three days past when he should have returned and she cannot concentrate for agitation. She worries, despite herself, however she attempts to distract herself.
When he does come back, he explains that the man he was tracking was proving very elusive and then grins and asks if she was worried about him.
"Of course not," she says curtly, dismissively.
Still, she kisses him a little bit more protectively than usual for the next few days.
--
The first time they say they love each other is when they are asleep, and they are sure that the other cannot hear them.
"I love you," he whispers into her ear when she is lost in a good dream, and he hopes that perhaps that will make the dream all the better. "I love you," he repeats again, just to be sure.
She tells him when he's fighting a nightmare, hoping to make things better for him, if words can indeed infiltrate sleep. "I love you," she promises.
She thinks it might have worked, because he sleeps more soundly.
--
The first time they are truly separated by fate, he keeps reminding himself that there is an afterlife and that they will be together again. He has to.
She paces the white sand shore of the beautiful, mystical afterlife restlessly, missing him just as fervently as he does her in her former world.
But it's not as bitter as it might be, because they know that someday they will be reunited; it could be months or years or decades, but it will surely come to pass. It is a hope that rejuvenates them, strengthens them, even while they are apart.
--
The first time they meet in death, it is not a cause for sadness but celebration, for it is a reunion rather than a separation. He gets out of the boat and walks to the shore, the water droplets clinging fast to his legs. He sees her waiting there, and she is young and he realizes with wonder that he is as well.
She is smiling, her hand outstretched just as it was years ago. He steps onto the shore, his bare feet sinking into the sand, and takes her hand.
Their hands clasped, he enters the afterlife beside her.