EPILOGUE: ONE-DAY

The desire to criticize becomes less and less as the character is developed. It is the mark of a fine character never to be critical and to mention but rarely the faults of others. A strong character does not resist evil, but uses their strength in building the good. They know that when the light is made strong, the darkness will disappear of itself.

-Christian D. Larson

Having been home a few days with Jasper instantly set my sleep schedule back together, so I'm still waking up at 6, going on a run and then coming back inside to have a smoothie- -one I'd usually share with my mom- -before I plan on waking my boyfriend up.

Though it's really cold outside, my Uncle Kace always is the one that shovels our driveway and plows the back roads by my house.

It started because my mom used to go on runs all the time, and now because me and Circe do.

Right now it's just past eight in the morning which is about an hour before the time Jasper ever willingly wakes up on the weekend.

That means two things, the first thing is him waking himself up or I'm waking him up instead of letting him get up naturally-something I know I've probably done before, but can't remember doing.

The second is that I will get to hear his attractive morning voice and he will probably be adorably pouty until he really wakes up.

Passing Malakaia- -who is a morning person much more than my older sister, who probably won't wake up until her fiancé drags her off the couch- -I awkwardly wave to her, pointing a thumb down the hall towards our front door.

"I'll be back later." Is all I say for an explanation, and knowing I don't talk a lot she just nods and moves on.

I met her when I was fourteen, so by now I'm okay with her presence and I actually kind of like her.

She's good for Nemesis.

Making him hot chocolate, I make sure to press a lid onto the top of the mug so I don't spill it before I reach my room.

Growing up here, my parents made sure I took enough behavioral therapy to be comfortable enough getting things and living on my own, but also buy things like this and use precaution in case my Tourette's decided to fuck me over.

I kind of tested myself at college and really thought that I would have adjusted quicker, if not for Jasper being so fucking hot and cute and instantly get my nerves up.

Totally worth it.

Once I get to my room I put down the hot chocolate and take the lid off, nearly knocking it over on a tick but narrowly avoiding it.

Jasper makes a small noise like he's asking a question, which is probably due to the fact he smells the hot chocolate than him actually knowing I either left or came back.

Because he's laying on his back, I just climb into bed and sit on his lower back, leaning down to kiss his cheek. "Jitterbug," I murmur, kissing him again. "It's time to get up."

"Hmm," He grunts, stuffing his face closer to the pillow. "No, it's not."

"Au contraire, Love, because it definitely is. We have somewhere to be."

Humming, Jasper asks, "Hell?"

"Eventually, yes."

Agreeing, I press a kiss against the back of his neck instead of his cheek -which completely backfires because then he just relaxes more.

"No, Jitterbug, don't-" I growl. "-go back to sleep. I'm taking you to my safe place, and it's a cliff. And it's winter. Which means we really want to be there when the sun is still out and if we try to go later in the day my family will distract us."

Grumbling to himself, Jasper turns to the side a bit to face me more, shifting under me as he meets my eye. "Can't get up if you're on me, my star."

"That's bullshit and we both know it, but fine." I flop over onto my bed, huffing. "Now you really have to get up, my love."

"Jokes on you," The musician chuckles out, rolling over to be pressed on top of me instead of actually getting out of bed. "Now you can't get up, either."

I really, seriously, should have seen this coming.

"Jasper," I groan, trying not to smile as he nuzzles into the side of my neck. "I made you hot chocolate and everything. Please get up?"

He just continues to cuddle into me, arms tightening around me.

Growling as I move, I move my legs up around his hips and push on his shoulders so we flip around again.

Blinking, surprised at the movement, Jasper flushes as I pin his arms down with one hand and grab his jaw with the other. "I'm so done being nice, get up or I'm gonna make it so you're sore and then have to go climb through the woods."

"Bossy," He pouts. "But fine, I'll get up."

Grinning, I drop my hold on him and stand up off the bed, pointing to the hot chocolate so he knows where it is. "I'm gonna get the ice skates, put them in the car and make sure our phones are charged."

"Imma get dressed." He nods. "Say hi to whoever you see, please! From me, not you. Though you can say hi from you, too."

Wrinkling my nose at him I shake my head, "Only one person is awake, that's Kaia and I already spoke to her. I'm going straight-" I squeak. "-to the skates. No bullshit tours for niceties even if I happen to pass her."

"Aw, okay," Jasper continues to speak through a yawn. "Would she get bothered if I said hi to her myself, though?"

"Depends on how much coffee she's had." I reply honestly, shrugging, staring down at him and grateful I don't have glasses on. "I say go for it."

Nobody in their right mind- -which Malakaia is- -can see Jasper's puppy dog self after being in the same house as him for three days and not be okay with him adorable saying "Hi." to them.

"Okay," Giving me a megawatt smile, Jasper leans over to gently hit his forehead against my shoulder affectionately before he stands and tightens his short strings. "When does everyone else usually wake up?"

"Nemesis and Circe will probably wake up around 11, Noel will wake up around nine- -nine, one-one- -well, fuck," I laugh at my own tic before focusing again. "And fuck if I know when Max wakes up."

"Ah." Jasper nods again. "The gringo."

Not really knowing what that means past it's something that his Uncle Gus tells his Uncle Law, I raise an eyebrow. "He's a what?"

"Oh," The musician flushes, eyes a bit wide. "Um. He's a, a stupid white boy? A gringo?"

Smirking and shaking my head, I raise up and press a quick kiss against Jasper's cheek. "I will never not find it adorable how you try and fail to insult people in other languages around me without me knowing."

"Well I did do it without you knowing what it was," He defends himself. "I just... also explained it to you?"

"That's my point, Jasper." I say, shaking my head at him. "I'll get all the shit, you get your pretty ass together for the day."

Honestly, I think just the sight of the completely bare woods and having to park on the side of an unmarked road kind of freaked Jasper out because he instantly shot to my side and held tight onto one of my hands.

"How deep is it?" He asks, minty eyes scanning the snow and trees.

"About a fifteen minute walk in good weather." Wrinkling my nose up at him, I squeeze his hand back. "If this starts feeling too much like a horror movie, tell me-" I growl. "-and we'll go back home."

"Honestly, you've reminded me of Deadpool enough times that the horror movie vibes don't bother me too much anymore." He shrugs. "I just don't want to get lost, 'cause you're still cold somehow even with a coat."

Rolling my eyes at the marvel comment, I take my hand back from him to put both against my cheeks -my hands actually being pretty warm right now.

"My hands are probably the warmest because of you," I huff. "So I don't know what you're complaining about. I'm not that cold."

"Your hands are usually colder than the average human's hands, which I am not complaining about, just slightly worried about."

I wave him off. "Even if it's a little shitty, I'm sure my circulation is fine."

"It's the ichor ruining through you, if anything."

Scowling I repress my blush and focus back onto the woods, grabbing his hand again so he doesn't trip as we walk.

The last thing I expected to happen was for the musician to call me out on my actions.

"Wait, wait, wait." Jasper laughs, dropping the ice skates and pulls me back, taking my face in both his hands. "Is that why you don't blush so much? You stop yourself?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I pointedly don't answer and for some reason this gets me a kiss. I can't help but to smile at the full-blown happy look my boyfriend has at the moment.

"That actually makes a lot of sense, when you blushed on the plane, it was when you were distracted. And when we-"

"Well I'm happy you figured this all out." I say, raising my hand up to Jasper's wrist to stop him from diving too deep into a topic that definitely has the chance to get me flustered. "But you'll have all the chances in the world to make me blush- -bit hot innit- -when we actually get to the cliff."

"Hmm, alright." He laughs. "I'm not going to miss making your happy place just a little happier."

Dropping my hand from his wrist to interlock our fingers, letting him pick the skates back up, I shrug and glance back to him but keep walking towards the cliff.

"It's not really a happy place, it's just where I go when everything feels bad, or if I'm really confused about something. It's a safe place, and everything bad gets locked up there." I sincerely doubt that I am explaining this right. Fuck. "But occasionally I go there with someone I love and we have a good time."

Jasper tilts his head at me, not giving away if my explanation made sense or not. "Who's the last person you went with?"

"Circe, when she gave me that fucking bloody nose and I locked her out of the car." Smirking victoriously, I glance up at Jasper to see him make a face that really only makes me smile more.

"Woo," The musician says in a sing-song voice. "Fun."

I can tell he still doesn't like that I got hurt, but there's not a lot I can do about that that I haven't already done.

Once we get to the cliff Jasper's eyes practically light up. He takes in the large cliff edge, the ridges by the water that end with giant rocks, the near perfect ice frozen down over a foot.

"For a place that keeps a lot of really shitty secrets," I start. "I think it's pretty beautiful up close."

"It is." He smiles, taking another look around, mint colored eyes catching on the top of the cliff, eyebrows raising. "I've seen a lot of beautiful things, and this place certainly qualifies for being high on the list."

"Ah," I nod. "You must be at the very top then."

"Pfft," Laughing, he nudges my body with his own. "You're such a simp."

"Yeah, sure." Rolling my eyes again, I grab my skates from him. "Given how much of a puppy dog you act around me and act like such a bottom ninety-five percent of the time, I think you've got dick to say about anyone else being a simp."

"Hey," He shakes our hands almost scoldingly. "Just because I'm a simp for you, doesn't mean that you can't simp for me too. Rude."

I bump his side in the same scolding manner, and can't help but to laugh as he slips on the ice and makes a loud noise of surprise -catching himself on the big rock closest to us, turning to me with a betrayed look.

Throwing my head back, I can't stop the laughter and take a good minute to stop.

By the end of it, Jasper just has a soft on his face and a small smile.

"What?" I ask, moving close and wrapping my arms around his middle, head tilted back to him. "You have to admit Love, that was funny."

"I love you, my star." Jasper says, hands locking behind my back.

Grinning, I raise a hand up and poke his nose. "I love you too, Jitterbug."

In record time, probably because I tied Jasper's skates up for him, we're on the ice and I'm skating backwards with my boyfriend's hand in my own.

He's a little nervous but surprisingly graceful on the ice for such a clumsy person.

"One of these days, Jasper Red," I begin, shoulders jumping in a tic. "I'm going to marry you, and every winter we're going to come out here- -husbands- -and every winter I'm going to fall in love with you all over again."

My boyfriend blushes a bright red, eyes going a bit wide as his hold on my hand tightens and we come to a slow push on the ice. "You hate winter."

"Doesn't matter." Saying this, I push back on the ice and throw my arms out, as if displaying all the snow. "If I can fall in love with you in a place like this, even after I'm already in love- -bit hot innit- -than anything is possible. And that's coming from a pessimist."

Skating back closer, I grab his hand and pull him up to stand straight.

"Wait, Star, what if I fall?" Jasper pushes back on the skates but ends up clinging to me when he just starts to slip.

"Then I'll catch you." I answer simply, rolling my eyes at him. "This place isn't magical like butterfly land, but there's something in the ground that makes you always feel better than you actually are. So by that logical, you should be fine."

"Yeah by that logic." The dork grumbles out, pouting down at the ice. "But my logic tells me I'll fall through the ice, get cold, then die."

Shrugging, I push away from him and skate right out to the middle of the ice. "This is the weakest part of the ice always." Informing him of this with a smirk, I get to watch as his pout goes to a narrowed eyed look as suspicion grows. "And you're worried about falling through the ice?"

"Star-"

"I can fix this little problem of yours." Ticing, my shoulders jump and my arm flicks out to the side.

A moment later, I jump as high as I can and fall as hard as I can, and though the ice gets two sharp ridges in them from my skate and I slip all the way over to one of the rocks, my point gets proven.

"There," I breathe out, turning back to him. "No more worrying."

"What is wrong with you! My star," Without even looking down, Jasper skates over to me without even thinking about it -just like Nyx said he could when I asked. He takes my face in his hands, placing a rushed kiss on my lips. "You could have gotten hurt, or fallen through, or, or... please be careful, Castor. I don't want you getting hurt."

Nodding, I kiss my boyfriend back in reply before quickly pulling myself out of his hold and rushing away across the ice.

"I so bet that I can-" I growl. "-out skate you."

My boyfriend says "I've been skating since I was three." not confidently like he's cocky, but as a blatant fact.

Smirking, I shake my head. "But I've played hockey since I was nine."

"You have Tourette's."

"You're clumsier than my Tourette's."

Mint green eyes drop from mine to give me a once over before glancing back up to me, "You're short."

Making a face, I raise my middle finger at him. "I'm average."

Jasper smiles suggestively at me, looking between me and my hand, that tics as if he offended it personally. "Maybe later, and my point stands that my legs are longer than yours. I could win."

"You can suck my dick later, if anything." I continue to shit talk, glaring at him now. "And you can't."

I didn't realize it until he put a hand on my side, but the musician was getting closer and closer throughout my argument and unknowingly, I was backing up against the cliff edge.

Reaching out to him, I take his other wrist in hand and pin it down to my side, turning my skate on the side to flip around and pin him tightly to the cliff wall.

He just keeps smiling, "You're gonna lose."

"Oh?" I raise one hand to hold onto his chin, my ring finger pressing into his pulse point where I can feel how hard his heart is beating. "Is that so?"

Jasper nods, gulping hard. "You know, it's hard to skate after, um-" Still so shy, his face goes bright red and he bites down onto his bottom lip, catching on his snake bites. "When I said 'later' I really meant now."

"Then we're going back to the car." Definitely not opposed to that, I drop my hold on his wrist to his belt, more to pull him than to undo it. "And we are coming back down here after, and I will kick your ass."

Jasper 'hmph's at me and pouts, saying "Bite me." in a voice that tells me he still doesn't know if he'll win.

"Trust me," I wink at him. "I plan to."

Even now, in the middle of a horribly flirtatious argument, all I can think when I look at Jasper is that I am so fucking grateful that it never worked out with anyone else.