They had made love two more times before running out of stamina, and Roxanna had pulled the covers up around them before curling up against him, her arm possessively thrown around his waist as she fell asleep against him. He found that he wasn't quite as tired as she was, and so he stayed up a little longer, his fingers carding through her hair in gentle movements as he watched her sleep. In that moment, he knew that he had fallen in love with her, though he didn't know how he would be able to tell her. He almost thought that he should wait until Roxanna said the words first, since a part of his heart didn't want to take the chance on being rejected if she didn't feel the same way he did. After Maja and John and every other disappointment in his life, he was just too cautious to even think about taking that leap of faith into her heart.

She stirred a little, her head rubbing against his chest as her fingers tightened into the meat of his back as she let out a sleepy groan. Henrik stilled his movements, not wanting to bring her to wakefulness, but it seemed that he was too late in that endeavor, as her blue eyes blinked open a little, a soft smile on her lips as she stretched a little, her hand rubbing up and down his back as she yawned. "You need your sleep, too, Henrik," she said as lifted her head and kissed his jaw.

"I find that I can't take my eyes off of you, Roxy." Her smile widened a little as she nodded. "Besides, we've stayed up later than this working on our research."

"Yes, well, we haven't ever exerted ourselves in quite this manner," she replied before letting out a satisfied breath. "I might become insatiable for a few weeks, as I get accustomed to how this makes me feel. How you make me feel. Henrik?"

"Yes?" he responded, wondering what she wanted to tell him. It sounded important, from her tone, and he didn't want to spook her by being too loud or harsh. "Roxy?"

"I, I know I've told you that I love you, perhaps too much at times." He tensed, a frisson of fear snaking down his spine as he waited for her to speak once more. "But tonight, I finally know."

"What do you know, Roxanna?" he asked before pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head.

"That I am in love with you. That I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know I'm a hopeless romantic, but I truly feel like you're my soulmate, and there's this joy that fills my heart when I think about our next six months together, and then, after I finish my last year here, the rest of our lives in harmony with each other. I love you."

Though her voice was somewhat gravelly with sleep, there was such a sweet vehemence to it that he couldn't help but nod in return, feeling the heavy weight of apprehension slip away from him as he pulled back so that he could look into her eyes a little better. "And I love you," he murmured as he watched her. A delighted smile lent a beautiful glow to her face, and then large tears were rolling down her cheeks as she laughed a little. "What?"

"I feel like it should be Christmas, Henrik. What we just shared was such a gift, after all. But instead, I suppose that I should be thankful for what we've shared here." Roxanna surged forward, her head coming to rest on his chest, listening to the beating of his heart. A soft silence fell over the room as they started to breathe in tandem. "I'd always heard that it hurt, the first time. Not from church, though I know you'd think that to be true, but from my girlfriends. Some of them started experimenting with sex really young, and I don't know if they didn't choose lovers so considerate as you. But this was perfect," she murmured, her tears still falling down her cheeks.

He reached up and brushed a few of the tears free from her face as he nodded. "We fit together like two puzzle pieces, and I know that's a really rough analogy, but it fits." He felt his cheeks redden in a blush, and Roxanna giggled sweetly as she blinked rapidly, trying to clear away her tears. "I love you."

It seemed that now he had said those words, it was so easy to keep saying them. From the sweet smile on Roxanna's face, he knew that she was pleased with the development between them. "I know we need to sleep, and I'm so tired, but it's a good tired. Will you tell me story about Sweden? What were some of your traditions growing up? Did you have any pets? What was your first word? I know so much about your mind, and how it works, but there are all these little gaps that I don't know."

He chuckled a little as he bundled her closer to him, letting his hand stroke her hair softly as he thought of where to start with her questions. "I didn't really have any pets growing up. Mum thought they were too much work and too messy. But I always fancied myself having a cat when I settled down with my partner."

"Oh, that's perfect! I grew up with cats, so we'll have to find one that suits both of us when we…"

Her voice trailed off, as if she didn't want to complete her thought, and tugged gently on a piece of her hair, trying to lighten the mood between them. "When we what? Find our own flat in England? Because I thought that was always the plan. We're compatible in every way that matters, we can make up after we argue, and you take care of me in a way that I didn't know I needed until you were in my life. We're in this for a lifetime, yes?"

"Yes," she breathed out before pressing her lips against his collarbone. "All right, so, we're cat people. Now, what about your first word?"

"I don't remember my first word, though I'm assuming that it was something like Mumma or Da. I suppose that I could see if my father kept my baby book, the next time we're in Sweden. As for traditions, well, my mother always did love a good Julotta service at Christmas time. We'd open presents on Christmas Eve, and then wake up at the crack of dawn to head to a too cold church and sing Swedish carols and hear the Christmas story, and all that rigamarole. I enjoyed it because Mum enjoyed it, but upon her death, we put that behind us."

"Oh," she murmured as she nodded. "That sounds like a lovely tradition to keep, honestly. My family never went to church on Christmas, even when it fell on a Sunday. We were always visiting family elsewhere, so travel was always a part of the holiday for us. If we have a family, I think I'd like to have a tradition like yours."

"We'll have to see about that, yes," he replied as he let out a soft yawn. "Now, I think that I'm going to be the one that drops off to sleep here, my darling." She nodded and then yawned herself, and he ran his hand up and down her back as he settled into sleep, content to have Roxanna in his arms.