Note: This story contains information included in Cassie's snippets of QoAaD and RSoM so don't read if you haven't read those already. I don't own any of the characters.
Helen quietly woke up for apparently no reason. Nightmares would wake her up but she only had them when Aline wasn't sleeping next to her, which happened a few times during their years in Wrangel Island when one of them had to stay up working. Helen always wanted to stay and let Aline sleep because she couldn't sleep well without her wife anyway but Aline rarely let her. So, on those nights, without Aline's steady breaths and heartbeats, the sounds that Helen focused on before falling asleep, her nightmares would plague her. They consisted of her siblings being torn away from her and she kept trying to reach them without success or she relived moments from the Dark War as she walked around Alicante, which had been washed of blood that had spilled from the dead bodies of the Endarkened, fairies and Nephilim, they were everywhere she looked. But the worst of them was the one where she's looking for Aline after the War was over and she can't find her at all, she keeps calling and calling her name and desperation builds up in her until it takes over and she wakes up with a start to an empty bed beside her and runs towards Aline, begging her to go to bed with her. It's like even her subconscious knows when Aline is not around her.
But Aline was next to her now. Her arm was draped over Helen's stomach and the blonde's left hand was resting on top of it. Helen could also feel her wife's breaths tingling her right arm gently. She turned her head around and placed a kiss on Aline's forehead. She was sound asleep.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sound of Aline's heartbeat, that was her favorite way to use her enhanced hearing. She knew she could get more in touch with her fey heritage and be even more powerful, maybe even learn magic which would be helpful in her work with the wards, but she had never wanted to after falling in love with Aline. It terrified that in doing so she'd become more like a Fairy and could potentially use love as a weapon like the Fair Folk are known to do, and just the thought of hurting Aline was too much for her to bear.
She knew her wife had more faith in her than she had herself, they had talked about Helen's fears after Aline kept pressing her about what was bothering her after she got back from Idris. Helen only opened up after realizing that Aline thought that she was having second thoughts about marrying her, that she didn't want to marry her anymore. Helen then reassured that she did want to marry her, more than anything, but that she was afraid she was being selfish and maybe even luring Aline into something horrible. Her fears seemed stupid and baseless when Aline moved closer to her, held her hands and whispered an inch from her face.
"Do you really believe that? That you'll willingly hurt me? That you're selfish even though I made the decision to be here because I want to be with you?" Her brown eyes were warm and searching. Helen just shook her head as tears came down her face. "I love you so much. More than anything in the whole wide world." Helen said as she hugged her then-girlfriend tightly and buried her face on her hair. Aline had calmed her fears but Helen was still reluctant in getting closer to fey side, especially since they were living in the Cold Peace.
She was glad she hadn't let her insecurities stop her from marrying Aline because it had been the happiest day of her life. And every night since then she would trace her fingers on her wife's wedding rune over her heart, the one she had drawn herself, to remind her that there was utmost happiness even in the darkest of times.
Her attention turned towards the sound of crashing waves somewhere outside the Institute though, unwillingly. It had been only a couple days since they had moved there after Aline's mom, the Consul, managed to get them, or just Aline officially really, to fill in the position as Institute Head for the Los Angeles location. Helen looked at her wife in utter shock and disbelief when she told her they were going to go to LA on that very same night, with Mark, so Inquisitor Dearborn wouldn't be able to question them and also that way LA would get a Head who was in the Blackthorn family and Aline and Helen would finally get out of Wrangel Island, at least temporarily, but Jia had promised she'd make it permanent somehow.
"I thought you'd be happier to hear you're going home." Aline had said in confusion when Helen looked blank and didn't say anything.
"I...I am. I just can't believe it I guess." Aline reached for her hand and placed the other around the back of her head pulling her towards her as she whispered that it was real, that they'd get to go home. Being back in LA was hard though, she had lost so much of her siblings' lives during those 5 years that she felt lost around them and the Institute. Even around Mark things weren't as easy anymore. He had changed so much during his time in the Hunt that even Helen being half-fey like him didn't help her much in feeling comfortable around him. The only time she ever truly did feel at home was in Aline's arms at night when they held each other.
She turned her head towards her wife again but this time she only looked at her. She was beautiful, Helen had always thought so, from the very first moment she had laid eyes on her at the Rome Institute. Helen couldn't help but stare and she even lost her train of thought, Aline was just crazy attractive to her, their chemistry had been there from the start.
Helen moved her right hand to gently run the back of her index finger through her wife's soft cheek. Helen then turned her whole body around to face Aline and moved her right arm to place the upper part under her head and then bended her forearm to run her fingers through Aline's black straight hair.
She knew there were over 1 billion Chinese people and Aline's hair was just that of millions of others. Except for Helen it wasn't. Nothing about Aline felt ordinary to her. She was everything to her and the love they had for one another was that kind that people searched the whole world over for and many just settled for something that wasn't even half as true as their love was.
She was lucky to be one of the few people who found that kind of love. Falling in love with Aline was the craziest thing that had ever happened to her. It was so fast, one day Aline was a complete stranger and a few days after that she was already the center of her whole world. It felt natural and hopeless, there was nothing Helen could do but to give out her heart completely to the almond-shaped eyed girl that was lying in front of her now. Not that she would ever want to fight it, loving Aline and being loved in return was the best thing in her life. And when she realized that Aline was crazy about her too their relationship developed quickly. Their first goodbye (out of only 3) after a few weeks together in Rome was torture. Helen didn't know how she was going to stay in LA without Aline, she craved her touch every day. Them being apart only lasted a few days though because Aline went to stay in LA with Helen since she didn't really like the way her parents had reacted to them being together and felt uncomfortable around them, plus she just wanted to be with Helen all the time.
Helen hugged Aline so tight when she arrived and said "I'm not letting you go ever again." And if the Clave hadn't exiled her she would have kept her promise. A couple weeks after Aline's arrival in LA they exchanged family rings. It had been Helen's idea because she couldn't imagine not waking up next to her girlfriend every day but she didn't think they were quite ready for marriage yet, Aline had only recently turned 18. Exchanging rings meant a great deal to Shadowhunters, it was a promise to get married and everyone around them was surprised when they did it after only a couple months of dating, but Helen couldn't be more sure of how she felt towards the Penhallow girl. It wasn't just a teenage infatuation and the fact that they got married around 2 years after that proved that to everyone who side-eyed them. And Helen was sure that quite a few people judged Aline to be crazy for following Helen to Wrangel Island but, even though it wasn't the life she wanted Aline to have at all, she knew they couldn't live without each other.
They had been together for 5 years now, almost 3 of marriage and nothing had changed. They were still as in love as ever, Aline's lips were just as soft against hers, her touch still sent shivers all over her body and she desired Aline just as badly, she needed their physical closeness every day. And even though living in Wrangel Island was far from what they wished for they built a life for themselves, a routine of sorts. They both cooked and took turns for every meal, they worked and trained together and they also entertained each other most of the time since the Island didn't offer much in that regard. Aline had gotten Helen into reading more and in turn Helen got Aline into watching American movies and TV shows. She was against it at first, since she grew up in Idris without TV or Internet, her only contact with mundane culture were the books she'd read, which were all Literature, History and poetry so she didn't feel like they should get into mundane things that much, but Helen eventually convinced her and they made a habit of watching something cuddled up together almost every night.
It was still too early to tell how their routine would turn out to be in Los Angeles but Helen was sure of one thing: that they'd fall asleep in each other's arms night after night.