The sweet tinkle of her laughter echoed through the halls. A beacon Jem followed to his safe haven. To the love of his life, joy in her voice he could feel in his own beating heart. After a century of distance, he welcomed the intensity of his own love, almost painful in the way it squeezed his heart. He could almost imagine her fingers doing it, calloused but gentle. Her laughter the sound of the purest, most beautiful music he had ever heard, in his long years of living. Had always been, even then.
Jem dreamt in melodies that he sought to recreate in his waking time. But even the best of his creations would not be a match for the sweet symphony of her voice.
"Oh, there you are!"
His Tessa. Bright grey eyes like the dusk shining over the Thames of his youth. Twinkling with sly mischief. She sat in the office room at the mahogany table by the window she so loved to gaze out of while she was deep in thought. Verdant gardens she had painstakingly tended to everyday stretched past the window but Jem could hardly notice, not when Tessa had twisted to look over at him, smiling.
It took his breath away everytime, the force with which he loved her. They had been together for a while now and yet her beauty seemed to strike him dumb sometimes. Her face ne'er-changing, once the only constant of his lonely life. She looked just as she had when he had fallen in love with her, just perhaps a little older. But her demeanour showed what her body did not. She was no longer the innocent, inquisitive girl he had met, endlessly curious about the world and almost reckless in her bravery to save her loved ones from pain and evil. She had grown to become a woman now, stately and solemn, with quiet wisdom sparking behind her eyes. The mark of years left behind by experience. Growing alongside the one they had both loved dearly and then on her own. Becoming a Shadowhunter, and then a warlock in her own right.
But no matter how much she changed, even while she wore a different face, she would still be his Tessa. His Tessa, with her dry wit and sly teasing, shy smiles and surprising mischief, melodic voice and fierce love.
He could not help himself. He kissed her, deeply. Tessa leaned into the kiss with a soft sigh. As though she wanted this as much as he did, as she missed him as much as he missed her touch. The knowledge that she did was almost dizzying for him. He had been married to Tessa for 2 months and yet this would always be new for him. Jem vowed to himself that he would never get used to this, never get tired or take it for granted. The fact she could love him out loud and he could love her back, as a man and no longer a marble statue sworn by the strongest of runes, was exhilarating. And deeply freeing. The desire thrumming through his veins in his boyhood, which he thought he had lost forever, was familiar now. Etched with love and care and bone-deep affection. He thought he had lost her and his chance to love her the way she deserved. But he hadn't. By the most unexpected of miracles, he had been given his health and heart back. Jem would not waste this chance. He would not waste this life.
Now that he could love Tessa the way he had dreamt of in his youth, he would do so for the rest of his life.
Jem kissed her with fervour and devotion, tasting Earl Grey and the mint of their shared toothpaste. He breathed in the familiar scent of her, old books and parchment as though they were still in the Victorian age they had been born in, and Tessa gave back as good as she got. She smiled into their kiss and nipped at his lower lip. Jem groaned a little and pressed his lips to her jaw and the smooth skin under her earlobe.
"That was a lovely hello," Tessa smiled, her voice low with affection. She kissed him on the cheek and needed no explanation for his sudden fervour. After all, she knew him best in this world and the next. And she too knew how precious it was to find again the lost love of the past.
"Ni hao, qin ai de." Jem's fingers cradled her jaw, brushing her soft cheek. "You were looking for me?"
"Yes, darling. I was writing a letter to dear old cranky Bezedioth about the force field next to the Church of England and why it might be repelling the selkies looking for a home next to it. It is dreadfully tedious since he needs so much coddling as the head librarian of the Labrynth, but I suppose he is a little bit too old so it's alright. Do we perhaps have a snack at home?" She sounded so hopeful that Jem laughed.
"Yes, love, of course we do. I'll bring it right over."
