Jake buried his head in the softness of Rose's shoulder, his nose brushing the satin of her neck, his hand tangled in the golden silk of her hair. She was curled around him one of her legs thrown carelessly over his hip, the rest of her body tight against his. Jake ran his free hand along Rose's spine, thinking of what a miracle it was that she was able to lie here next to him, in his room, like she hadn't been able to for far too long.

"I missed you," he mumbled. Suspicions or no suspicions, trauma or no trauma, separation or no separation, this was his girl; this was the love of his life. No matter what there was to get through, no matter what oceans had to be crossed and what mountains they had to climb, he would do it all for her. There was nothing that he wouldn't do to keep her next to him because he knew that's exactly where she belonged.

"I love you," Rose stuttered in response, her lips an inch away from his. Rose knew what was going to happen next – she was going to have to kiss him. They had avoided a lot of physical affection up until this point, but Rose knew that it was time. She was healing and there was no reason why a girl in love wouldn't want to be with her boyfriend.

Just as she predicted, Jake tilted his head up at her words and captured her lips.

Rose felt a jolt in the pit of her stomach at his touch – something that she convinced herself was revulsion but knew, deep down, that the word revulsion didn't fit what she was feeling. She leaned into the kiss, telling herself that she needed to act like she had before; she had to want more than what he was offering; she had to push all the boundaries. With that on her mind, Rose maneuvered her arms so that she could run her hands over his stomach. She could feel the outline of his muscled body underneath of the t-shirt she was currently toying with.

She tried to pull it off over his head and was incredibly surprised when he stopped her from doing so. His large hand came to wrap gingerly around her still bruised wrists, moving them away from his clothing. She wanted to fight against his touch but, honestly, she was too confused by his actions to do anything but stare at him. Boys wanted sex; boys with girlfriends who looked like her really wanted sex. She'd never admit it, but she was also a little hurt at the fact that he was denying her; wasn't she pretty? Didn't he think she was worth it?

"Don't look at me like that," Jake murmured, seeing her disbelieving expression. "I know you don't want this."

Oh shit; he could tell? If he was already seeing through her, Rose knew that this was going to tank quickly.

"What do you mean?" She asked innocently. "Of course I want you."

"It took you and me a really long time to get there, because of everything the both of us were dealing with. After you've been through so much, I just can't see us zooming back to that step."

"What if I want to zoom?"

Jake smiled at her, and dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. Rose wrinkled aforementioned feature the moment he touched it, but was quick to smooth out her face before he could see her disgusted expression.

"No zooming. For either of us," he said firmly.

But Rose couldn't let that happen. She knew she was acting differently than she would have before, and she knew that Jake was no idiot. She couldn't let him start to dwell on the differences, otherwise he might realize that her change in behaviour wasn't just due to being kidnapped and tortured for months; that there was something more to it. She had to distract him, and no matter how many times she said 'I love you', no matter how many times she kept him right by her side, she knew that it wouldn't be enough. But, well, sleeping with her? That was a whole different ball game. If she could continuously distract him with her body, then she would be better off. He would be even more reluctant to question her than he was now, and he would have less time to ask himself those questions.

With that in mind, Rose brought her lips to his neck, sucking on the sensitive skin. She heard him such in a breath and nearly smiled – that was the first step. She felt his muscles tense beneath her touch as she roamed her fingers from his collarbone, across his stomach, and down to his hips. She circled his hip bones teasingly, dipping down a little before coming back up. His hand gripped her bicep, almost painfully, at her excessive provoking. She ran her hand along his the zipper of his jeans and felt him swell.

"Come on," she whispered seductively in his ear. "Please, Jake, I want you so bad. I spent so much time missing you that I can't take it anymore."

At the mention of how she missed him, Jake caved. He flipped her underneath of him, kissing her thoroughly. When she went for his t-shirt, he pulled it off for her. He remembered the last time they had done this, on the hidden Dragon Island, the night before he'd lost her for eight agonizing months. The long, cold, endless amount of nights when he'd lain in this very bed, missing her, thinking her dead, and praying that he could have her back, just for one brief second, weighed on Jake's shoulders as he looked down at her half-nude body.

He studied the scars that he'd never seen before, some of them still raw in their newness, and winced for her. He wished he could have spared her the pain but he knew that he couldn't. He also couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her – constant pain, constant fear that she wouldn't get out alive; it made panic swell in his heart at just how very close he came to losing her.

Jake bent down, looping his arms around Rose's muscled back and lifted her into a tight hug. He needed to feel her life against him: he needed to feel the gentle heave of her breath against his stomach and hear the whoosh of air against his ear; he needed to feel her heart beat in her chest, needed to be able to know that he could bend his head and hear her heart beating in within her. He needed to reassure himself that she was alive, she was here, and that she was never leaving him again.

(-.-)

"We cannot interfere, Sister."

The Oracle Twins faced off against one another, housed in the cave of stone that Fu had discovered them in so long ago. Their incandescent bodies seemed to glow as the friction between the Twins grew.

"We must! Sister," her voice turned pleading, "We have seen the same things. You know what will happen just as well as I. How can you let this occur?"

"We cannot change fate!" The Twin cried. "We observe; we help where we are supposed to, but you know just as well as I that we are not supposed to help here! We are to watch it happen and we are to put him together when it all falls apart."

"It doesn't have to fall apart!" The Twin argued. "It shouldn't! The American Dragon and the Huntsmistress has suffered through so much together already. And, independently of that, Jake has suffered so much already. Don't you remember what he was like when we were children? Don't you remember how willing he was to help us? Don't we owe him the same thing? He would help us no matter what we needed; we should be doing the same thing for him."

"BUT WE CAN'T!" The other Twin screeched. "We are bound by our laws. We gave up free will when we gave ourselves over to the higher plane so we could become what we are today – more than humans, less than Gods. We can only enter and alter a situation when we can a vision of ourselves entering the situation. For now, we are only observers in what is happening in their lives. We cannot change it; we cannot fix it."

"We have to do something. Please, Sister," the Twin begged. "Please. We can't … We can't let them die. We can't allow Jake to hurt like that. We can't let him do what he's going to. We must allow destiny to run its course, no matter how painful it is to watch."

"There has to be something we can do."

Sympathy in her eyes for her pleading twin, the other sister extended her arms.

"There is one thing."

"What is that?" There was hope in the blank, colourless orbs that were now the eyes of the Oracle Twin. "What can we do?"

"We may be able to enter the situation after a certain point. Let is join our hands together and search for the time when we may enter Jacob Long's life again."

"Didn't we already do that? We received the vision that we were supposed to reenter his life again when it's all over; when all is said and done and the only thing left to do is to pick up the pieces."

The Twin thought about this, reflecting on the vision that had received just hours ago, prompting the argument that they were having now. "Let us look further into the future than that. If Jake is too distraught to complete the rest of his duties, we may ask the fates to change their minds, to let us go sooner."

The twins twined their hands together and closed their eyes, softly beginning to chant to the fates that governed their lives. Near instantaneously, a vision came to them:

A bottle of smashed whiskey stains the floor around his feet; heroin tracks, once healed and faded, are once again prominent – the newest only a few hours old. He is in a corner: disgraced, broken, and coated in bright crimson blood that is not his own. He doesn't know where it came from but he's utterly devastated that it's there. He touches the blood on the front of his shirt and it comes off on his fingertips. He stares at his stained hands remembering a night, ten years ago, when it was her blood that covered him; when death finally came and collected on her life.

His entire body is shaking as he reaches into the depths of his jacket pocket, pulling out the drug – the salvation – that will finally free him from this hell of a life. He inserts the needle into his arm, into his veins, and lets it fill him. He can feel it travel through his body and he knows, with a horrid, ecstatic certainty that this time he truly has gone too far; that it is too much.

He dies without caring that it's his little sister who will find him.

The Oracle Twins broke out of the vision, chests heaving and hearts racing.

"We cannot let it end that way," they said together.

"This world needs him."

The twins met each other's eyes, knowing they were on the same page, so neither was surprised when one followed the other's sentence with, "So that means the world needs her."

"We can't let her die. We can't let fate take this course."

One Twin offered her hands out again. "So let us ask when we change course; let us ask how far is far enough. We cannot risk losing him completely."

The other Twin's mouth was set in a harsh line. "I wish that neither of them had to suffer again at all, especially Jake."

"But he must suffer; as the American Dragon, he will always be suffering."

I don't own anything recognizable. I'm getting the feeling that this one is going to move a little faster than Forever Am Drag so it may not be as long.

~TLL~