Prompt #5 - AU

Summary - This is the reason I wanted to do this whole challenge LOL This is a Jaya prompt based on the climax scene of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Quotes from the book/movie are scattered throughout, but mostly paraphrased.

Dedication - thelightningninjasis, HAHA THIS IS YOUR LAST ONESHOT FROM ME AND IT'S A QUALITY JAYA-

***(Nya's POV)***

A letter...from Jay.

Sensei Wu said he dropped it off just before he was due to leave town this morning. After an absence of eight years, Jay Walker returned to Ignacia for a few weeks - and now he's moving on again.

Without me. Just like I moved on without him eight years ago.

My trembling fingers tear into the envelope out of a desperate need to see its contents. Jay - he hates me. After what I put him through with that Perfect Match malarkey eight summers past, what more could he have to say to me?

What more could he have to say to me?

I finally get the dratted letter out of its packaging, and my eyes hungrily take in the greeting in the upper left of the paper. The handwriting is recognizably Jay's, but it seems that instead of his usual sloppy script, he spent a great deal of effort on this piece.

Which means...this isn't a ruse. It's his handwriting. The letter has to be from Jay.

My heart leaps so far forward in my chest, I'm surprised I don't topple over with the motion.

My eyes run over the contents of the message, not caring for what's said except that it's Jay's.

I scan the text a second and third time, all with little comprehension of what's written.

A fourth time.

Every time I read the message, it's like my mind fails to process its meaning because I'm so occupied with what it could say.

About the seventh or eighth time, I manage to work out the first few words.

Miss Smith (Nya...though I think you're the only Miss Smith who lives at your estate),

I can bear this no longer.

You've pierced my soul (or what's left of it after the hell you put me through). Not that I blame you alone. The Perfect Match scandal was...well, just that: a scandal. It was designed by your family to keep you from marrying someone as ineligible as me. I desire to forget that dreadful past and move on.

There's only one issue: When I press my mind not to obsess over how I lost you, my imagination inundates me with dreams of what it would have been like if you'd never listened to your family. I can't help but fantasize about what my life would be like now if you'd elected to marry me regardless of Perfect Match.

I'm half-agony, half-hope.

Unjust, I may have been. When I first returned to Ignacia after eight years away, I still held your decision to leave me against you.

Weak and resentful, I have been. I have treated you with utmost disrespect these few weeks in town because of the bitterness I held toward you.

But never have I been inconstant, as you were when you ruined our dreams eight summers past.

And if I'm butchering this as usual, that means I still love you as much as I did then - and more.

I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own. And since you almost broke it (actually, you did break it) eight years ago, I have loved none but you.

You alone have brought me back to Ignacia. For you alone I have returned so that I might find a wife. Are you truly so unaware of my affections?

But now I must depart town, unsure of the fate I face. Unsure of the fate we face.

A word, or merely a look would be enough to tell me that my hopes are entirely misplaced in you. But I don't wish for this - please tell me the feelings you harbored for me eight years past are still vibrant in your heart as-

And I can't make out the subsequent words, for my feet are already pounding across the ground in a mad dash for the town square. That's where Jay said his carriage would depart this afternoon.

He still - still loves me? But this whole month he's spent in Ignacia, he's never once shown me any sort of kindness. He's been entertaining other girls - younger, more eligible ones - ever since he returned to town to flaunt his fortune and find a wife.

Yet somehow, I'm the one he wants.

I run harder across the paved road. What time is he due to leave town today? Noon? A quarter after?

It's nearly 12:15 already.

I swallow against the pain splitting my side and continue my trek toward the town square. I should only be a few minutes out, and that means by some slim chance or divine hand I perhaps could catch sight of his vehicle as it leaves.

 I pray desperately for him not to have left yet - I know if he's gone by now, I'll never see him again. He'll think there's nothing left in Ignacia for him.

But he's wrong. There's me.

Finally the square comes into sight, and I nearly collapse with relief when I see a sturdy black carriage girded by two men. They seem to be in conversation - perhaps the carriage driver and some passerby?

Who cares as long as Jay's there?

I force my legs to move faster until faces come into sight -first my brother-in-law Ronin's, and then his conversational partner's.

Jay's face.

He's still here.

"Captain Walker!" I shout above the hubbub of the square. "Captain!"

Heaven knows I'm causing a scene, but at this moment I couldn't care less.

Jay's posture suddenly turns rigid. Ronin, on the other hand, whips around to fully face me.

"Holy - Nya!" he exclaims. "What the heck are you doing here? Gosh, your hair's a mess. What happened?"

I don't respond, coming to a stop beside them right as Jay turns toward me.

Ronin goes on without needing an answer. "You should get back home, Nya. You look like you're going to have a heart attack or something. But then...I don't think I have time to take you back. I actually have a meeting with a couple of interested buyers at my shop - two guys who want a scroll for Airjitzu or something. I mean, I don't really care what I have to lift - I mean, locate - as long as I make a good profit. But maybe Jay could take you back in the carriage? You know what? I like that idea. All right, I'm out of here. See you two later! If Nya doesn't have a heart attack, that is."

The whole time Ronin rambles on, I can only stare at the boy-turned-man whose heart I broke eight years ago.

I won't make that mistake this time.

Jay's eyes roam my face, piercing and blue and focused only on me. His hand absently strays to fix a strand of my hair. I'm sure it only constitutes a fraction of the mess that is my life.

But that one strand must matter to him.

I swallow hard, trying to catch my breath and find my words. "Captain..." I trail off. "Jay."

He simply stares down at me, eyes earnest, pleading, and expectant.

I shake my head, clearing my thoughts of the shock and stress of the day. "I...um...I...I received your proposal."

The slight raise in his eyebrows is the only indication he hears me.

I take a deep breath. "I received your proposal, and I'm...I'm of a mind to accept it. I..." I close my eyes. "Thank you."

He runs a finger under my chin, and I inhale sharply at the long-denied feeling of his touch.

"Are you sure?" he whispers, his voice gentle and oddly soothing.

I nod vigorously. "I am. I am determined. I will." Both my hands come up to grasp his under my chin. "And nothing, you may be sure, will ever persuade me otherwise." Salty droplets leak from the corners of my eyes, my breath held uncertainly in my lungs. My eyes crack open to judge what Jay's reaction will be.

He studies my expression, then our joined hands, then another errant strand of my hair.

All the while, I feel myself become increasingly tenser. What if I'm too late? What if he decides he truly doesn't want me anymore? What if it's taken him this long to realize that?

Jay's eyes finally land on mine. My heart stops.

And he smiles at me.