"Jack?"

The boy, for he had gone back to about age thirteen, turned from looking out and up to the moon. He gave Katherine a small smile and she approached, taking a seat beside him. They were silent for a long time, but their thoughts and feelings were loud. In the rush of everything, how quickly battle after battle and all the events of recent past had happened, they had had so little time together. No time to truly talk and just enjoy each other's soothing company.

Jack noticed Katherine's presence now felt different than it had before. It was neither a bad nor a good difference, but something he couldn't explain. He had aged back to eighteen and she around twenty. He always became his oldest self around her now. He wondered why. He started slightly when he flet her warm hand place over his. She muttered a soft apology, but gently caressed his hand in her fingers, flipping it to face palm up as she traced where the dark wound used to be. He noticed her fingers trembling slightly.

"Katherine?"

"I was so angry with you at first, you know?" She whispered, her voice so low he almost couldn't hear. He didn't know what to say. Her grip on his hand tightened. "One hundred years... I dreamt of you every single night. Wishing, praying that you would come back." His eyes softened, but she continued, her head down. "And to learn what you had to do, being so alone and having to practically die... I didn't have time when you first told me to thank you. To cry for you. To do anything for you." Her grip tightened more thanhe thought possible on his hand. Her shoulders began to shake and she looked up at him.

The moonlight streaming through the window struck the tears now rolling down her cheeks. For the first time, a thought came to him that he had never had before. Her piercing eyes and flushed cheeks, her tears for him trailing down them, her full brown hair framing her soft yet firm face- all caused a thought of one word. Beautiful.

"I'm so sorry, Nightlight." She sobbed and his heart swelled at his former name and her broken voice. "I couldn't be there for you. I couldn't protect you." She broke off as sobs wracked her body and he -stunned- slowly raised up his hands, one tilting her chin up to face him again. His other went to her wet cheek, his fingers gently collecting the shimmering tears. He stared at them for a moment, then raised them to his lips. He wasn't sure exactly why, but it felt like the right thing to do. They seeped into his mouth and he was surprised to find them a little salty. But passed that, there was a burst of flavor he had only caught glimpses of in his long life, an emotion he had slowly begun to understand more and more. Love. Deep, true and pure love for him is what washed over his whole body form her tears. He smiled at her again, replacing his hands on the sides of her face as she sniffled, trying to stop crying.

"My Katherine." He murmured softly. She met her eyes to his and their feelings connected more like the olden days than they had in years. Both moved and reached for the other in sync. They held on to each other tightly. She with her face pressed into his shoulder, eyes squeezed shut, hands balled into fists, clutching his blue hoodie. Him with his face in her sweet-smelling hair, one arm across her shoulders, the other around her waist.

"I've missed you," came her muffled voice and he held her tighter. "So very much."

"And I you." He answered.

They stayed like that for a long time, neither ready or wanting to let go. Jack's eyes opened only when after who knows how long, he felt a tingling sensation on his cheek. Katherine had not released her tight hold, but had turned her face enough to place her lips lightly on his pale face. Warmth again flooded through him. Jack was not very familiar with kisses. he had only given one and received a few in his life. But he did know they held great power. Katherine's felt different from the good-night kiss, however. He once again found himself with no explanation toggle. The kiss wasn't a spell or a charm to just keep one safe, it's power felt even deeper, richer than that. Though this was all still very confusing and new to him, he knw that this type of kiss was especially for him and Katherine. A kiss that could not be replicated or performed by anyone else for the same effect.

In the coming days, months and years, Jack would learn more and more about love and the kind that he only shared with Katherine- no one else. The love of a friendship and bond so deeply forged between two souls that it grew and blossomed, morphed and changed each day to suit both their needs. It was the most magical and wonderful thing.