HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

Since I can't see you for a while, this is my present to you. You'd better love it!

MUCH thanks to Gabby (ragsofshadow dot tumblr dot com), my editor and writing-partner. Couldn't have done this without you.

"Do you remember when we met?"

A fond smile, a nod, and a kiss pressed into a soft cheek. "Of course, how could I forget?"

"True, not every day you meet an angel."

"I am not an angel." Exasperated, though fond.

"To me. My angel." A hand darkened by the sun and roughened from hard work brushed against a silken cheek and was clasped by warm hands gently but firmly.

"You are the angel here, not I."

"No," drawled with a smirk, "I play the devil part quite well, no?"

A fierce blush on ivory skin, a pout. "I liked you much better as a child."

"I loved you, even then."

"Oh?"

"Of course. I had found an angel."

"Then why so rude?"

"You cannot befriend an angel; impossible."

"But you did."

"Oh?"

"You befriended me, and," Jem kissed each of Will's fingertips, "you did say I am your angel."

"I did not befriend you. I made you fall for me. There is a difference."

"Not to me, either way, wo shi ni de."

"Hn?"

"I am yours. Forever and always. Even unto the next life."

Will's eyes fell their clasped hands, then flitted to Jem's earnest face and the box of yin fen delicately balanced on his knees. "James...I…" he bent and buried his face in the curve of his lover's neck, holding him close in his arms.

"I love you. I mean every word, even if you cannot understand it. I want to stay with you for what little life you have left...I...I love you. You are my angel, my love. Don't...don't leave me. Please." his voice cracked on the last word in his earnesty, "Fy cariad, fy angylion melys."

"I will never leave, William. Only death will part us. And...death is not the end. Merely a passage into the next life. And hopefully, that life will be happier. Longer. William Herondale, if we meet in the next life-"

"We will meet, fy caraid. We are parabatai, tied together. Not just this life. In all."

"Must you interrupt me, William? As I was saying, if-when we meet in the next life, I...I want to…" Jem paused, a pale blush spreading like fire across his cheeks, "We simply must not be parabatai in the next life. At least then we can...our relationship, I...I do not want to keep this, us, a secret. I want-"

"I understand," a lazy smirk lit up Will's face, "and you would look beautiful in gold."