A/N: I don't think this pairing's that popular, but the more I think about it, the more I love it. It's my secret OTP. (Don't tell Sheelos I said that).
Disclaimer: Don't own ToS, just love the characters.

Presea opened her eyes, bleary vision and a glance out the dark window telling her that it was nowhere near sunrise. She vaguely wondered what had woken her up, but didn't think on it long. She'd long grown used to frequent bouts of nightmare-induced insomnia after Lloyd and the others helped her to regain consciousness, and she now tried to avoid recalling whatever dreams she'd had. Despite how long it had been since then, with the memories of how Alicia and her father had suffered while she did nothing , she could never truly be at peace. In fact, that she was even been able to sleep this much, she considered a blessing.

One that she attributed to the warm, comforting feeling emanating from next to her.

Presea turned her head slightly to gaze at the one who allowed her sleep, however brief. His head of white hair poked out of the cover he had pulled to his side of the bed. A cold draft blew across her legs which lay bare, uncovered by her nightgown. The window had been left open in the summer heat.

Ah. So that's what woke me.

Tugging the cover back, she breathed an exasperated sigh when he held it tight, but couldn't prevent her lip from quirking at Genis's sleep-induced behavior.

No matter how adult he seems, he will always be something of a child. Just like me.

She recalled now with a sense of nostalgia the time she had rejected him, saying that he was too childish, and that he didn't know love; that he had yet to experience enough to understand it. He never had outgrown his childhood crush, and over the years, he had managed to prove her wrong. It had been his persistence which had warmed her heart enough to love again.

But Presea knew better than anyone that the once boyish half-elf was no longer a boy, and neither was she a little girl. But she also knew that he, more than anyone else, understood what it was like to feel constrained by their body. Not only because of the discrimination he'd received due to his half elf blood, but also because he had always been mature for his age; one of the voices of logic and intelligence. Even she had judged him for his height, his young appearance, and his sometimes petty antics.

Both a bit too old for their bodies, both always a bit of a child on the inside. Smiling, she supposed that might have been what finally led her to cave to him. His innocence and expressiveness, but most of all his love, had brought her a lifetime in the three years they had been together.
With him, her days were full of emotion and color and new experiences, enough to almost fill in all the gaps in her memories that made her feel like she was broken. Like the smooth flow of glue through the cracks in her carvings, he carefully, lovingly, put her together again.

And in moments like this, when she could simply be with him, she could imagine time holding still for them, this time, not in a sixteen year torture, but a years-long moment of bliss.

It was almost as if she could feel her lost time coming back.

Presea quietly moved to lay against his back and allowed herself to enjoy a bit more of a stolen moment alone with him and her thoughts.

She fell asleep again, warm, to the sensation of Genis's hand coming up to rest on hers.