As we all slipped away from the fighting and fire, Jojen pulling Bran away from Jon, so tantalizingly close now that the young boy almost didn't resist. Almost. As always, Jojen is there to steer Bran to the correct path.

We were about to slip away, unscathed and finally safe, when everything hit the fan.

Behind everyone else, I'm the only one who saw the man running at Jojen, just in front of me. I didn't want to alert anyone nearby as to where and who we were by yelling, so instead I reacted on what my second instinct was: I raced to meet the man and stop him. When he got close, brandishing a knife he was ready to sink into Jojen's back, my mind blank and I simply jumped between the man and Jojen. The blade plunged into me instead and I made a noise that was half grunt and half whimper.

Mental note: I am not good under pressure.

The world turned on its head as my knees give out. Suddenly I was falling,  Jojen crashing to his knees to catch me and make sure I was okay. Meera attacked the man and I registered distantly that she killed him. It happened so fast... Suddenly it was over, and the pain was sinking in and then, everyone was around me.

Emotion visibly choked everyone up as the need to survive and escape mixed with the pain of seeing me die and the chaos ensuing only a foot or two away. Meets placed her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Hodor whimpered. Bran's eyes teared up, his body frozen in shock. Jojen suddenly stood, scooped me up, and I had time to bury my face in his chest to muffle my moans of pain. "Come on," he snaps at the others. Hodor carried Bran and the five of us were off, running into hiding.

When Meera and Jojen both finally agreed that we were far enough from the enemies, Jojen put me down and Meera took time only to set her things down before taking off to see if there were any nearby herbs that could lend some help. Hodor set Bran next to me and the three men look at me, shaking like leaves in the wind. "Buckle up," I joked, whining at the sharp pain that flies through me. No one smiled.

Bran and Hodor fall asleep before Meera finally came back. Jojen leaned against the nearest tree, his eyes scanning for his sister as he stood, poised and tensed and ready. "Jojen?" I call quietly. He looks down at me, kneeling to get close to me now that I need him. "If I die..."

His face twists. "You are not going to die," he spits out aggressively.

I smile, reaching out for him. "There's something I never had the courage to say. Until now," I continue as if he didn't say anything at all. He's surprised how I want him, but he gives me his hand as I bring his hand to my face, kissing his knuckles. Jojen's eyes go wide and I swear I see his heart stop through his pupils.

He sits properly, not crouched and ready to spring up any second like before. "What is it?" He asks gently.

My eyes find his, the pain moving through me now because of lost opportunity and my cowardice rather than the inflicted wound I now bore. "Ever since we first met in that forrest," I whispered, my eyes glassing over as I zoned out, thinking of that day. Meera had the knife to Osha; Osha had the spear to Jojen; Jojen and his never faltering confidence and knowledge. I remember how I stood, stock still and shocked to see the boy that had been running around willy nilly with no concern for my sanity in my dreams suddenly in front of me and in real life.

He'd been even more good looking in person, and seeing him that first time had me stunned to silence. It agonized me that he looked at Bran and Summer at first. How his eyes found Meera and Osha and Hodor and everyone else. Everyone but me. How instead, his eyes simply moved around me or over me or through me as if he either didn't want to see me or just... didn't.

Voice flecked with pain, I swallowed, returning to the present. "You never really seemed to be... there," I finally offered. Jojen flinched, his face scrunching up.

"I-" Jojen began, wanting to explain.

Shaking my head, I looked at him pointedly. I wasn't done. He quieted. "You would always gaze into nothingness, even before you were sick. Even before you stopped talking to even Meera properly. Even before you could barely stand and you were so taken by the visions that it was overwhelming and death-like. Even before everyone lost you, you were lost to me. Devoured by deep thoughts I wished to see and hear and know of..."

Jojen hovered, wanting to make the pain go away but not being able to change the past - as much as he desperately wanted to. He shook his head. "I'm sorry," he whispered, looking away.

Tugging his hand, I got his attention again. "Hush," I ordered too softly for him to think I was genuinely angry. "I just- Well, rarely would you utter even a word to me. Look at me. Touch me. As if I wasn't there at all. Scarcely would I ever even hear your voice. You were always huddled away from me next to Bran, whispering too quiet for me to hear from my distance. But I never forgot your voice, Jojen. Not in the few moments I had heard it."

My eyes closed as I groaned, leaning my head back. He whispered my name but I didn't respond. "Come on," he begged, looking out and away from me. I realized he'd been speaking to his sister rather than me when I opened my eyes, looking at him. As I grew completely still and quiet, he looked at me. Our eyes locked.

He didn't look away, and this spurred me on. "Before, when our eyes would meet even by chance, even less than what they do now, you were emotionless. Except this cold fierceness, this shared, resilient ice that was held within those eyes of your. That gaze that so desperately avoided mine."

Reaching up, I touched his face. He shivered under the feeling as my finger tips only barely brushed him cheek, ghosting his skin. "BUT," I continued. "while I was searching for your stoney eyes, I was searching because I could feel those eyes on me. When I wasn't looking, I knew you were. I could always feel you, carefully watching me. Watching over me. Following me and making sure I was safe or happy or accounted for. Making sure to see me when chaos was pushing and distracting and it would be easy to lose me. You were looking, and it made me want to look too..."

I moved my hand, catching his again and pulling it close. My lips press to Jojen's knuckles one more time. It had been something I'd wanted to forever, and it was seeming now that I wouldn't get the chance to do it after this, here, now. I wanted to feel him there. The colors of the world started fading and I sighed, closing my eyes again. I was tired. Incredibly tired. But I couldn't sleep yet. I still had more to say. "Stay with me," Jojen pleaded. "I can make it up to you just-" He whimpered as I hissed. I was losing a lot of blood. This was bad.

Reaching up, my hands moved to his face. I forced him to look at me. "You were always there, Jojen," I pushed out through labored breaths. around heavy eyelids I could see his expression soften. "I know you cared for me, but you chose to admire from a distance. Bran told me about your powers. Your dream stuff. You were there, weren't you? All the conversations. The games. The comforting. The cuddling. All of the dreams that made me ache for sleep because the life I was living was painfully lonely and I just wanted my dreams to be real because... I loved you before I knew and had met you, Jojen Reed. And you felt the same didn't you? You watched me day in and day out, all the time every time. You always had my back and my best interest at heart. Even focusing on Bran and being so careful to keep your distance, you cared and tried and worked the hardest when it came to me. You cared the most and ended up being the most faithful and dedicated in the end. As a... small... show of gratitude..." I pulled him down, pressing my lips to his forehead. I moved my head, whispering directly into his ear. "I can only grant you the knowledge that I... really was... in love with you. I wish... it could... have been better. And I hope, whatever kept you away from me, will not keep you from someone else. I hope you grow old with someone, Jojen Reed. You deserve it."

Limp, my hands fell away from his face. "No," Jojen whispered, his voice wet and cracking. "No you can't leave me on that. I get to confess back. I get to confess back! This is not the time for dramatic exists!" The thought made me smile as the world faded even more and blackness slowly rose to engulf me. Even as I died, Jojen could still humor me enough to make me smile.

Footsteps crashed through as the blackness took me. "I'm here!" It was a distant Meera. That was the last thing I heard before I slipped past being able to hear anymore or hear at all anymore.

She was here. But she was too late.

-

I was allowed to visit Jojen in his dreams. There he could not touch me, but he could see me and talk to me and that was enough. He told me how much he loved me. How he knew that he would be joining me soon. He knew he wouldn't even make it all the way to the three-eyed Raven.

When the day came, I drifted over Jojen as he was stabbed. As Meera loomed over him, sobbing and wanting to save him. As his eyes closed, he finally passed through to the other side, saw me ever so briefly, and he knew it was time. This was it. Meera left him as I saw the cold of death swallow up his eyes.

Reaching down, I took his hand and guided him up. Not his body. No. In fact, his body was bursting into flames as we spoke. Though, I couldn't bring myself to be sad or mourn. I had Jojen's soul right next to me. He looked around, taking in the new view point. His eyes landed on me and he grinned. He was in prime health, clean and strong and grinning. I was at my best too. Jojen wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to him. He kissed me.

Life had been cruel to us. Jojen had kept himself away from me because he knew he would die. He didn't want me to get attached. In life, we were in love but forever separated because Jojen had seen his death and assumed he'd go first.

Yet here we were.

Life was cruel.

Death, on the other hand, was kind.

Here we could be together, in eternal peace, past the wars and the agonies of the living. Both of us were plenty okay with that. He intertwined our fingers, using his free hand to caress my face. "I love you," he whispered almost reverently. "More than I have loved anyone or anything before you."

A brilliant smile light up my face. "And I love you," I whispered back. "More than I ever will love anyone or anything from here on out." He jokingly frowned. I'd won. He'd had only his lived years to compare to his love... but I had the next eternity I'd used for my comparison. I kissed away the frown.

The next eternity. Jojen by my side, wrapped in peace and love. Forever.

What a concept.