Tessa, and all of you lovely readers, for you. A day early.

Not yet the end of the fic but finally the end of the night

"So," He says, his mouth feels dry and his heart begins its race-horse pace once again. "What do we do now?"

...

Jane looks up at him her eyes bright and alert, the deepest green in the warm dim light of the fire, and steps back from him finally breaking their embrace. He lets go of her reluctantly, some part of him feels like its pulled out of him as he loses contact.

"We do what we must." She answers, but she doesn't say it like an obligation, her voice is low and warm and completely disarming, it settles over him like breeze against the skin.

She walks to the side of the bed looking at him as she pulls herself onto it and sits right in the middle, she folds her legs onto it beneath her. She puts her hands against the mattress, holding her weight on them. She looks tiny, he realizes as he walks the few steps to join her. He goes to the other side following her suit and settling across from her just inches away, her hair falling forward on her face as she stares at their hands splayed next to each other. He lifts his own brushing her hair back, he slips his hand into her hair again brushing her cheek with his thumb. Her eyes are closed and she leans forward.

He kisses her slowly this time, savoring and losing himself in the moment, in the sweetness of her mouth and the momentary simpleness of it. It bares none of the weight of their previous kisses, not of being watched by all, or to make her understand what he had been drowning in, just for a moment a kiss. Then she leans into him, and the feeling is new but just as alive and precious, her hands moving slowly upward along his arms until her hands are in his hair holding them together. And it becomes something more yet again; deeper.

With all her weight leaned into him, it feels so natural to slip his arm around her back using the other on the bed to guide her slowly down. And everything changes once more. She is underneath him now. Her body pressing warmth against his, her mouth against his, and now his heart feels like it might, finally, after everything, burst completely through his chest.

Despite that he moves slowly. Kissing her slowly. We do what we must. They might find themselves alone but he can feel the weight of this moment. This moment that they have come to with full knowledge and consent but that has pressed on them none the less. He cannot fathom this moment shared with others as it might have otherwise been, as was the usual custom. Still the weight remains the same, the weight of others eyes on this private moment, this moment does not belong to them, not entirely. He moves deliberately, not letting himself go, no matter how much he wants to.

Its a blurry thing full of awkward moments. Jane runs her hands along his back, (each time she settles them in a different spot he imagines once again burning through his clothes and into his skin) digging her fingers in occasionally when he makes bold moves, like when moves his knees between her own.

Her knees clutch at his hips, he sucks his breath in suddenly, he feels sunbursts along his body, turning his head into buzzing and white once again, he might explode. His fingers grip the bedclothes her sides knuckles going white. He pulls up after a moment of getting a grip on himself and her eyes study his face, her mouth is open her lips slightly swollen, parted. Her breath comes in fast bursts, her chest moving along with the upbeat rhythm. He recaptures her lips once more, less careful than before and more desperate now that they are wedged more closely together.

He moves his hand down grabbing her leg right above the knee, to bring her closer, just to touch more of her. She makes a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sigh, with her legs bent around him her shift has pooled around her waist leaving her legs completely bare, he is touching her actual skin. Pressed together as they are in her shift and his shirt it is something else to actually be touching her skin to skin. He runs his hands along the length of her thigh, her skin is soft the warmth seeping into his fingers making him want more, more, everything. He continues his trek until his hand all the way up, until her clothes are bunched up over her hip and her stomach. Small trembling breaths escape her mouth, her head bent back he places kisses against the tenderness of her throat. He moves away that hand reluctantly shifting his weight so that he can do the same on the other side. Her own are fisted on either side on the collar of his shirt, a current of energy seemingly running through them from where her fist rest on his collarbone and his hand on her hip. Her mouth finds his once again, she moves it fiercely against his own.

He stops, breathing hard pushing up from her, looking for any flicker of doubt or worry. Any hesitance or concern from her, but there is none, not from her. She looks determined, her eyes dark and- She pulls him down from the collar of his shirt where her hands are, her mouth crashing into his her mouth quick and demanding. His balance is thrown off all his weight landing on her for a second, her stomach and chest lifting him with her breathing, he scrambles to regain his weight on his elbows and stop crushing her, "I'm sorry." He breaths against the warmth at the crook of her neck, mortified. Her body is trembling slightly under him and he realizes a second later that she is laughing, little breathless laughs that make her stomach quiver against his own, heat and embarrassment spike into his stomach in a particularly bizarre mix of desire and mortification.

She presses her hand against his cheek. He marvels at how intimate it feels, that small gesture, suddenly, despite the current position they find themselves in. He leans his cheek into her hand, and smiles.

"You were taking too long." She tells him, placing her bottom lip between her teeth in a small smile, as if embarrassed of her admittance. Sweat has the hair at her temples in a slightly darker shade of red, he touches that spot with the tips of his fingers warmth filling every part of him. She is the most radiant thing he has ever laid eyes on. She is a star in that sky that he has fallen into. He had always thought stars emitted a rather lonely glow, a far away and cold light. But light is heat and Jane is a white-hot heat. An instantaneous burn all the way through his skin, to his bones and into his soul.

He pulls her lip out from between her teeth lowering his head, to take it between his own. "You are right." He whispers, as he moves mouth along her jaw and neck as before, pressing his body against hers, moving against her. "It has been my fatal flaw this night." And my entire life, he thinks. At least when it comes anything concerning Jane, because at the moment he cannot remember anything that isn't Jane. "But not anymore."

She is not the one holding him back, this entire day the only one holding him back has been himself. Holding himself from Jane, from everything that he wants. Everything that is right in front him. The most precious and real, Jane...

She gasps, a real shuddering gasp that he feels in his chest.

Her hands are a sharp movement pressing to her face, she wipes quickly at her watering eyes not letting it turn into tears. She is panting working through the pain. While he is not sure that he himself is even breathing.

She looks up at him with a look that makes his heart soar but also crumples it into a million pieces, only Jane would be capable of doing both to him with one look. It is the sweetest look he has ever gotten from her or anyone, not that any other person exists at the moment. Her eyebrows pull together in the middle, she looks concerned. She takes his face, only inches away, in both her hands. "Its okay Gunther, I am all right." He wonders at what true pity his face must be if she reassuring and comforting him while she is the one in pain.

He feels like he exists in two plains like some part of him is floating above everything in the immutable white buzzing that has returned, and the other is full present with her, hating the pain that he is inflicting on her.

"I wish it were me..." He whispers to her.

"Ha." The sweet shiny look doesn't leave her face. "That is nonsense, we both know I can take this so much better than you would ever be capable of. You would be in serious tears. I remember you staying floored the one time accidentally knicked you between the legs." She raises an eyebrow at him.

"That... is not something I want to remember in this moment... In fact, this moment might not have been possible if you had managed to hit me any harder."

"Imagine how I feel now... I can certainly take more than you." The way he feels must show on his face because she drops her playful but mocking tone. "It is getting better." Her voice is sincere as she pushes some hair away from his face.

He just nods, swallowing. Her hands still haven't moved from his face. They hold him from floating away, her entire body cradles him and holds him. They fit together in way he had never imagined correctly, in way he could have never known before this moment.

They just look at each other in the small space between them. Her ragged breathing becoming smoother, and the words just tumble out of his mouth. "You are the best person I have ever known."

"What?" Her breathing picks up once more but it is different this time. Like a fast tempo to a different more lively tune.

"You are the bravest, strongest, most beautiful and tenacious woman that I have encountered. That day, do you remember? When we spared in the rain." He remembers it so well, a day like any other except for the torrent falling down from the sky. It is burned in his mind so vividly he could see it now... They had kept fighting even as the rain began, they had been arguing and were locked in one of their death matches, neither one willingly to concede even to the immutable force of mother nature. Everyone else had left a while go used as they were to their constant rivalry. Anyone with any sense had gone inside, even Dragon had flown off to his cozy and dry cave. But him and Jane had continued their arduous battle. At one point soaked completely as they were, Gunther kicked some of the muddy ground at their feet, up. It splattered on her, covering parts of Jane's face and her hair, even her chest. But it hadn't even slowed her down. Catching him of guard, she had taken the advantage that he had hoped to gain and smacked into him with her shoulder, the full weight of her body behind the blow sending him toppling onto the ground. Another quick movement of her her hand knocked his wooden sword well and away the point of her own coming to rest beneath his chin. It was that moment, when he looked up at her, filthy, covered in mud, entirely drenched but triumphant, that it had hit him in the stomach worse than one of her blows, more like a dagger to the gut. He expected to feel anger or envy as he often did when she beat him, instead he felt desire, raw and deep within him and he knew he would never want someone as much as he wanted her, he would never want anything as much as wanted her. "You won and that moment I knew I had to have you, I knew my life would always be found wanting if I never did. That is why agreed to marry you, Jane." It was only later that he realized how truly deep those feelings went. That she had become part of his very existence and so rooted into his being long before then, he was no longer a whole person without her. It was later that he had come to know that he would never, ever, have her. But he was was able survive at her side- at her opposite- as long as she was in his life. As long as he got to make her scowl and smile in equal measures, as long as he never lost her light and warmth. "You I have wanted for a very long, long time and for longer still I have-" His words, pouring out so uncontrolled, are cut short as they crash together again. She has closed the distance in full and total abandon.

Any restraint they had kept, (that he had kept) gone; broken and lost. Their movements suddenly frantic. Kisses and gasps. Touches and moans. Heat and perspiration. She is wrapped all around him and he in her.

It isn't long until it is too much, too much heat, too much presence, too much Jane.

"Gunther." She calls his name, her hands digging into his sides and his world implodes, the buzzing whiteness coming over him in full and sudden force. It takes everything with it and then slowly reveals it back to him, piece by piece. First is the breathing but not only his own, her presence, her body beneath him she comes into focus. He is trembling and he knows it.

They settle their breathing, the world coming fully back to him. There is a great swell in his chest as his feelings crash in on themselves there. He isn't sure if it is good or bad, he has no true name for it. It just settles itself there as he moves to lay next to her. She adjusts her garment pulling it down as she turns on her side like him and the look at each other in the space separates them. He wonders if she feels it as well, the strange swell of all emotions ready to burst full inside his chest.

Then she links her hands with his and the connection opens between them again, and that swell disintegrates into nothing. Perhaps it was the lack of contact that left him feeling nothing and everything at once. He loops his fingers with hers, running them back and forth her thumb against palm, his over her knuckles. Their rings, new and shiny as they are, spark life into their hands. He wants to say something, finish his earlier sentence, explain how just the simple act of holding her hand in his makes breathing easier, but he can't, exhaustion pulls at him in the lull of the moment. The day finally catching up to him from waking up early to fetch a cow, to the restless nerves of wedding, to this night...

Thoughts slip and flow and soon he is not in this world but the one of his making instead. Sleep takes them both.

So, it finally happened. This was my...*counts* fourth...? One of these scenes that I've written. (including the one in In The End, which was my first ever.)

All of them have been Jane and Gunther, and the others cut off at different moments.

I meant to end this at the part where Gunther says "But not anymore." But I felt like I was robbing you guys of the moment... so I extended it.

It is interesting to write these under such different circumstances. Also its a bit more difficult (for me) to write this with Gunther's perspective but hope you guys enjoyed it.

Thank you Guys for the reviews! They mean everything!

Please let me know what you guys think! This was probably the most difficult to try and get right. So please drop a comment below or PM me if you wish!

I don't think that this will be my next update, but I hope to not take too long before we get back to this!